Sunny Ormonde - Actor
Sunny has been playing the outrageous and naughty Lillian Bellamy in Radio 4’s The Archers for the past 21 years and has made Lillian one the listeners’ favourite characters.
Sunny is also a seasoned theatre performer appearing in everything from pantomime to Shakespeare - one of her favourite roles being Shirley Valentine. She has appeared extensively on television- most recently in Doctors - but other TV work includes Casualty, Brookside, Waiting For God, Grange Hill. Sunny adores the spoken word and as a radio actress recorded well over 400 plays and short stories for the BBC. Dorothy is her second one woman show – her other being An Evening With…… which she has toured extensively. She has appeared regularly with fellow Archers cast members in stage shows, Come Rain, Come Shine, Larkin’ About and Wicked Women - the latter performed with her dear friend Sara Coward who played Caroline Sterling in The Archers for 32 years.
Jane James - Writer
Jane has written extensively for Sunny Ormonde: firstly with a piece for the opening night of the Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham, followed by the play Wigs, Wideboys and the Ruler of the World at the Attic Theatre, London, which also starred Chris Emmett (The News Huddlines), and Archers actors Sara Coward and Annabelle Dowler. Jane has also written sketches for Sunny’s shows Wicked Women and An Evening With…..
Jane’s other work includes a ground-breaking collaboration with the Attic Theatre and the London Fire Brigade, Primary Care Trusts and the Metropolitan Police to use drama as a way of engaging older people about issues of relevance to them. This resulted in the three Ma Kelly plays, written by Jane, which have been seen by over 14,000 people in over two-thirds of all London boroughs; the cast has included Pearl Mackie (Doctor Who).
Jane’s radio plays, Departures and Arrivals, have been recorded many times by students at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Birmingham School of Acting
Sue Wilson - Director
Sue trained as a barrister at the LSE and as a teacher at Mather College, Manchester, but she has spent her career as a director in theatre and radio and as a writer.
She worked for the BBC as Senior Drama Producer for Radio 3 and Radio 4 for 13 years in London and Birmingham, and directed over 300 plays – and The Archers
Sue’s work on radio includes Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, She Stoops to Conquer and Wallis - the Life and Times of Wallis Simpson. Radio awards include two for Albion Tower - Sony Gold & CRE (Commission for Racial Equality) and Talkies Award for The Piano.
She has directed over 150 theatre plays including Breaking The Code, Torch Song Trilogy and an award-winning Dr Faustus.
Sue ran three repertory theatres: The Pitlochry Festival Theatre, The Chester Gateway Theatre and the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton. She was Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for six years before leaving to resume her freelance career. She has directed in theatres all over the British Isles, most recently The Mill at Sonning, The Bristol Old Vic, The Tobacco Factory and The New Vic at Stoke on Trent.
As a writer, Sue’s most recent play is the touring production Larkin’ About, based on the wit, words and women in Philip Larkin’s life.