Julia McKenzie

Julia McKenzie (b. 1941) is an actress known for her roles on television and in West End musicals. For the 1984 special Henson's Place, she was the off-screen narrator and interviewer of Jim Henson. In 2001, she played Jack's Mother in the Creature Shop TV movie Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story.

McKenzie began her career on the London stage, appearing in Mame (Gloria), Promises, Promises (Marge McDougal), and Company (as April). In 1977, she made her Broadway debut when Side By Side by Sondheim transferred from the West End, and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Later West End roles included Miss Adeleide in a 1982 revival of Guys and Dolls, the witch in Into the Woods, and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

On television, she was a regular sketch player on The Two Ronnies (1973-1979, often playing wives) and Frost's Weekly (1973). She starred on the sitcoms Maggie and Her and Fresh Fields (and its sequel, French Fields). In 2008, she took over the role of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple from Geraldine McEwan for the television series. In period drams, she played Mrs. Jarnley in a Disney Channel version of Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop (with Peter Ustinov and James Fox), Mrs. Forester on Cranford and Mrs. Crisparkle in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.