Francesca Annis
Perhaps Annis' strongest film performance to date was as the Karen Silkwood-like main character attempting to expose a radioactive leak in Michael Apted's "Stronger Than the Sun" (1979). Fans of PBS' "Mystery!" may remember her as Agatha Christie's Prudence 'Tuppance' Beresford in the "Partners in Crime" series (Part I 1984, Part II 1986) and "The Secret Adversary" (1987), the world premiere movie that preceded the series in England. Annis made headlines in 1995 both onstage as Gertrude to Ralph Fiennes' "Hamlet" and offstage when their romance signaled the end of Fiennes' marriage to Alex Kingston. She then starred in the British serial "Reckless" (1997), shown on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1998, playing the art-imitating-life role of an older woman falling for a younger man.