Annette Badland
Annette Badland is an actor, born 1950.
Her first credit here is dated 1977 and her most recent is dated 2026, a working life of very nearly fifty years. The first is Griselda Fishfinger in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky. The most recent are a thriller series and a film still to arrive.
In between sits an enormous quantity of British television, much of it the kind that does not travel: a Miss Marple adaptation in 1985, Bergerac, Lace, Making Out, 2Point4 Children, children's series including The Queen's Nose and The Worst Witch. Abroad she is better known for Margaret Blaine in Doctor Who, Mrs Fitzgibbons in the first season of Outlander, Babe Smith in EastEnders and Mae Green in Ted Lasso, and only the last of those is in our catalogue.
The stage is where the awards attention went. She was nominated for an Olivier in 1993 for playing Sadie in a Jim Cartwright play, and the same character reappears on her screen record five years later in the film Little Voice.
What she does is misdirection. She gets cast as warm, round and harmless, then the part turns, and she never signals the turn in advance. Doctor Who used her exactly that way. So does Midsomer Murders, where Dr Fleur Perkins is the pathologist and by some distance the most entertaining person in the room. In Ted Lasso, as Mae, she has a very small part and complete authority over it.
She has not slowed down: Heartstopper (2022), Big Boys (2022) as Nanny Bingo, Beyond Paradise (2023), The Toxic Avenger (2025).
Movies (16)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
- The Toxic Avenger Unrated (2025)
- Flavia (2026)
- Valiant (2005)
- The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
- Angels and Insects (1995)
- Little Voice (1998)
- A Christmas Carol (1999)
- Captives (1994)
- Operation Napoleon (2023)
- The Baker (2007)
- Jabberwocky (1977)
- Sisi & I (2023)
- A Quiet Passion (2016)
- Three and Out (2008)
- Legacy (2010)
TV (22)
- Midsomer Murders (1997)
- Ted Lasso (2020)
- Bergerac (1981)
- Heartstopper (2022)
- Beyond Paradise (2023)
- Judge John Deed (2001)
- Run Away (2026)
- 2Point4 Children (1991)
- Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye (1985)
- Criminal: UK (2019)
- Cutting It (2002)
- The Worst Witch (1998)
- Microsoap (1998)
- Big Boys (2022)
- Gulliver's Travels (1996)
- Lace (1984)
- Oliver Twist (1999)
- Man Down (2013)
- Wizards vs Aliens (2012)
- Making Out (1989)
- The Queen's Nose (1995)
- The Sparticle Mystery (2011)
Where to start with Annette Badland
Her range is easiest to see in two jumps. Little Voice first, for Sadie: it is the screen version of the role that got her an Olivier nomination on stage, and it is the warmest thing here.
Then Midsomer Murders, where she plays the pathologist and steals scenes from people given far more to say. The show is comfort viewing by design and she is why a lot of people keep it on.
Ted Lasso is the modern entry point and the one most people arrive from. Mae gets very little to do and does all of it perfectly. Heartstopper and Big Boys show she is still being cast well by writers half her age.
For deep cuts, Jabberwocky is where the record starts, filthy and very funny, and A Quiet Passion is the most serious thing on the list. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a tiny role if you simply want to spot her.
The recent television
The current run, and the widest reach she has ever had. Mae behind the bar in Ted Lasso is the show's quiet conscience, and Heartstopper has introduced her to an audience three generations younger.
The films
Fifty years of British film in supporting parts. Jabberwocky is the early Terry Gilliam, and Little Voice is the film of the play that got her an Olivier nomination for the same role on stage.
The long television career
The decades of British television that built the face everyone recognises. Bergerac is where a lot of viewers first saw her, and the long procedural run gave her a recurring pathologist for years.