Honeysuckle Weeks

Honeysuckle Hero Susan Weeks (born 1 August 1979) is a British actress known for her starring role as Samantha Stewart (later Samantha Wainwright) in the ITV wartime drama series Foyle's War beginning in 2002.

Weeks was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Robin and Susan (née Wade) Weeks (who have since divorced), and grew up in Chichester and Petworth (both in England). Her parents named her after the plant honeysuckle because they were in bloom when she was born. She has a younger sister Perdita and brother Rollo, both of whom have also pursued careers in acting.

Weeks was educated at Great Ballard School, Sussex, Roedean School and Pembroke College, Oxford, where she read English (graduating with upper-second class honours). She also spent time studying arton the John Hall Pre-university Course in Venice, Italy. As a child she was a member of the Chichester Festival Theatre. From the age of nine, Weeks studied at the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the weekends.

Aged 11, Weeks was flown to the United States and cast in the Walt Disney Pictures feature A Far Off Place being directed by Steven Spielberg. However, when Spielberg dropped out of the project, Weeks' role was re-cast with Reese Witherspoon.

Television

Her acting career began with the juvenile lead in a television series, an adaptation of Anne Fine's Goggle-Eyes (1993), along with her sister Perdita. Since then she has appeared in many programmes, including the children's series, The Queens Shilling The Wild House and the long-running series Midsomer Murders and Poirot. In 1997 Honeysuckle and Perdita were both in Catherine Cookson's The Rag Nymph, wherein Perdita played the younger version of her sister's character. Her film roles include Annie Ridd in Lorna Doone (2000) and Sarah in My Brother Tom (2001). She starred in The Bill in 2009 as Julie Nowak.

She has starred in The Five, created by best-selling thriller writer Harlan Coben. She is known for her parts in three television series: Close Relations (1998), Ladies & Their Gentlemen (2002–2006), and Foyle's War (2002–2010, 2013, 2015). In the last, a BAFTA Award–winning detective series set in Hastings during and just after World War II, she starred opposite Michael Kitchen. In 2007, Weeks starred in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries as Tania Thompson, a character based on the Canadian serial killer Karla Homolka. In 2008, she appeared as Harriet Pringle in the Radio 4 adaptation of Fortunes of War. In 2012, she played a small part as Mrs Beeton in an episode of the BBC educational programme The Charles Dickens Show.

In 2015 she appeared as Mae Harmer in the BBC TV series Death in Paradise episode 4.8. On 9 May 2015 she portrayed a wartime letter writer at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1. She also appeared in the ITV series Lewis episode "Magnum Opus".

Film

Weeks has appeared in the films My Brother Tom, Red Mercury and The Wicker Tree (the "spiritual successor" to The Wicker Man).

Stage acting

In early 2010, she appeared as "Sarah Prentice" in a production of the Agatha Christie play A Daughter's A Daughter at London's Trafalgar Studios. Later that year, Weeks appeared as Eliza Doolittle in a production of Pygmalion at the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex.

She starred in the UK premiere of Melanie Marnich's play These Shining Lives from 8 May to 9 June 2013.

In 2018, she starred as Mabel Cantwell in Gore Vidal's play The Best Man on the West End.

Weeks was engaged to the poet and musician Anno Birkin for a short period before his death, at age 20, in a car crash in Italy in 2001. She married hypnotherapist Lorne Stormonth-Darling in an impromptu Buddhist wedding ceremony while on holiday in the Himalayas in 2005, followed by a London wedding in July 2007. The couple have one child born in 2011, and live in Petworth.

In August 2015, Weeks was caught speeding on the A3 in south-west London. It later emerged that she was already banned from driving under the totting-up scheme (due to points violations), and in early 2016 was ordered to wear an electronic tag as a consequence when the court imposed a four-week night time curfew on her.

In July 2016, it was reported that Weeks had gone missing, with relatives said to be concerned for her welfare. However, she was later found safe and well and remained with police late that night before being returned to West Sussex.

In 2004, Weeks was nominated in the Most Popular Newcomer category at the National Television Awards.