Ciaran Brown meets actress Honeysuckle Weeks

Honeysuckle's interest in acting came from her parents, who both had ambitions to act. They encouraged their children into drama from very early ages

In November 2008, I went to the Theatre Royal in Nottingham to see Alan Ayckbourn's play Absurd Person Singular. The excellent cast included Honeysuckle Weeks, best known for her character Sam in Foyle's War. After the performance, I waited outside the stage door to meet Honeysuckle. She was so friendly and easy to talk to. She signed my programme and two

Honeysuckle Weeks was born in Cardiff in 1979. She is said to have been named after the fragrant clim

Honeysuckle grew up in a farmhouse near Chichester. She attended the 'posh' Roedean Boarding School for Girls, in Brighton, and later gained an English degree at Pembroke College, Oxford.

In 1997 and 98 she was kept very busy with four episodes of Have Your Cake and Eat It (1997); eighteen episodes of The Wild House (1998) and parts in the TV mini-series Close Relations (1998); a Ruth Rendell Mystery The Orchard Walls (1998) and a 1999 episode of Midsomer Murders.

Honeysuckle was cast as Annie Ridd in the TV film Lorna Doone in 2000, and the following year she was seen for the first time on the big screen, in My Brother Tom (2001) a film about two sexually abu

Although Foyle's War took up a lot of her time over six years, she also appeared in the film Red Mercury (2005) also Cards on the Table (2005) and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2007) for TV. Since then she has been seen on TV as Julie Nowak in the The Bill (2009).

In the theatre, Honeysuckle played the governess in a 2008 production of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw; has toured as Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; and recently played Eva in Alan Ayckbourn's brilliant play Absurd Person Singular, which I went to see at Nottingham's Theatre Royal.

In 2002, Honeysuckle met future husband Lorne Stormonth-Darling, a dealer in Tibetan antiques, who is 16 years her senior. They went through a 'fun' Bhuddist wedding whilst on holiday in the Himalayas in 2005, but 'tied the knot' for real in 2007. They were married at the church in Bar

Ciaran Brown gets a kiss from Honeysuckle Weeks

Honeysuckle Weeks signed this photograph for Ciaran Brown

Honeysuckle Weeks signed photograph from 'Foyle's War'

Sara Crowe & Honeysuckle Weeks in Alan Ayckbourn's 'Absurd Person Singular'

Honeysuckle Weeks and Michael Kitchen in 'Foyle's War'

Honeysuckle Weeks at the 'National Television Awards' at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in October 2004.

DVD 'The Rag Nymph' by Catherine Cookson

Perdita Weeks as Mary Boleyn in 'The Tudors'

Rollo Weeks as Jack Bradley in 'The Queen of Sheba's Pearls'

photographs and I complimented her on her fantastic performance as Eva in the play. Before she left ("to go and have a pint!"), I got a kiss from this very talented and extremely pretty actress!

climbing plant that was in flower at the time of her birth, although it seems that her parents (who are now separated) had a penchant for unusual names, as her younger sister is called

Perdita and her brother's name is Rollo! Their

father is in advertising and their mother, Susan, is now the Conservative candidate for York.

A kiss from Honeysuckle!!

Honeysuckle

Susan Weeks

Perdita Weeks

Rollo Weeks

Honeysuckle in 1997

and in 1992, Honeysuckle and

and her sister Perdita, both got a part in the BBC2 children's series Goggle Eyes. Aged fourteen, Honeysuckle appeared as young Faith in the TV ada R

Both Honeysuckle and Perdita appeared as the younger & older versions of the same character, Millie, in Catherine Cookson's The Rag Nymph (1997).

Honeysuckle Weeks in Close Relations

Honeysuckle Weeks in The Wild House

Honeysuckle Weeks and Anthony Calf in 'Lorna Doone'

Honeysuckle Weeks in

Midsomer Murders

Honeysuckle Weeks & Anthony Calf

in Lorna Doone

In 2002, Honeysuckle was first seen in the role that has made her well known to a wider public, Samantha Stewart in the BBC's WW2 series Foyle's War.

Honeysuckle Weeks and Julian Ovendon in 'Foyle's War' ('Among the Few')

Sam Stewart is a vicar's daughter who is transferred from the Mechanised Transport Corps to act as driver to Det Chief Superintendent Foyle played by Michael Kitchen.

Honeysuckle Weeks and Julian Ovenden in

Foyle's War

Honeysuckle Weeks as

Samantha Stewart in

Foyle's War

In the series she has to drive a large, heavy Wolseley around the often narrow streets of Hastings. "It was slightly tricky going round the corners in that car as it

didn't have power steering,

and you had to turn the entire wheel sharp."

lots of information about Honeysuckle and the other cast members.

There is an excellent website for Foyle's War with