A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Elizabeth Morton

 

Elizabeth Heery was born in Formby, Liverpool on the 8th of January 1961 and started off life as an actress working under the name Elizabeth Morton, Morton being her Mum's maiden name. She was educated at Christ the King High School and Seafield Convent School and in her formative years spent her weekends playing the piano accordion in Northern Working Men's Clubs. As a child she devoured Mallory Towers, Enid Blyton’s Naughtiest Girl in the School series, Noel Streatfields' Ballet Shoes series, Five Children and It, then at school fell in love with Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, and then, when she was a student, she discovered Zola. Huyton was where she first fell in love with books, when her Dad used to take her with him in the summer holidays to his school in Stockbridge Village (she remembers it as Cantril Farm) and she spent many happy hours reading school library books that were in the stock cupboard at St Brigid’s School. She then trained at Guildhall School of Drama in London.
 

as Lucinda in 'Watching'

 

Her first TV role, under the name Elizabeth Morton, was in the ITV Playhouse series playing Liz in 'Children Playing' (1967) but it wasn't until 1983 that she had a small part in 'The Lords of Discipline', then as a 2nd Radar Technician in 'Lifeforce' (1985) and then in Alan Clark's 'Billy the Kid and The Green Baize Vampire' (1985). She then had a larger role playing Papagena in the BBC sci-fi series 'The Tripods' (1985) before more minor roles followed in 'The Brothers McGregor' (1986), 'Dear John' (1987), 'Brookside' (1987) as Sizzler's girlfriend, before starring as WPC Hester Goswell in 5 episodes of the BBC's 'Rockliffe's Folly' (1988), and in that year she starred in Philip Ridley's film 'The Universe of Dermot Finn', which was officially selected for The Cannes Film Festival. She guest starred in 'Capital City' (1989) and Spender' (1991) prior to 9 episodes as Helen Field in 'London's Burning' (1991-92). There then followed a major part in the popular comedy series 'Watching' (1991-93). The series followed mismatched couple Malcolm Stoneway and Brenda Wilson's on/off relationship, during which Malcolm married another woman called Lucinda, played by Elizabeth, in series 5-7.

as Madeline Basset

Elizabeth then played a regular in the ITV series 'Jeeves and Wooster' 1992-93), playing Bertie's love interest, Madeline Basset. Bertie himself describes Madeline as a "pretty enough girl in a droopy, blonde, saucer-eyed way, but not the sort of breath-taker that takes the breath." Although elsewhere he describes her as "physically in the pin-up class." As a third-regeneration Madeline it was thought Elizabeth brought this across fabulously and was the best of the lot.
In 1995, she starred in the BBC film 'Rich Deceiver', playing Gabriella de Courtney and on PBS America played Miss Jessel in the film 'The Haunting of Helen Walker'. She married Peter Davison in 2003 who had played Doctor Who and also finds another Doctor Who, David Tennant, as her stepson-in-law. She appeared as herself in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary film, 'The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot'.
She is also a voice actor known for the film 'Faeries' starring Kate Winslet and for her work with Big Finish audio drama. In 2015, she voiced the role of Teldak in 'The Waters of Amsterdam', starring Peter Davison, and Stella Preston in 'The Avengers, the Lost Episodes' and in 2016, voiced Mary Westerna in 'Dracula' starring Mark Gatiss. She was a member of Tony Robertson's company at Theatr Clwyd, alongside actors Ralph Fiennes and Nathaniel Parker and was in the original casts of Howard Goodall's 'Girlfriends and The Hired Man'. She played Linda in the second cast of 'Blood Brothers' in the West End directed by Bill Kenwright.

As well as acting, she also works as a writer and writes fiction with her books usually having a young female protagonist. Her father’s family is Liverpool Catholic Irish and her books, that are published by Penguin/Random House and Pan MacMillan, are all set in Liverpool. They are sagas full of drama, probably because of her theatre background as an actress, heavily influenced by the time she spent in Willy Russell’s 'Blood Brothers' in the West End. After winning first prize in The London Writer's Competition sponsored by Time Out, then becoming a double winner of the prize after winning the play category two years later, she was invited to join The Royal Court Young Writer's Group under the mentor ship of Dominic Cooke and graduated. She was then given a bursary to go and work at ITV. She has also had work produced on BBC1, C4, and BBC Radio 4. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/07/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-jason.html