Sophie Lawrence
Encyclopedia
Sophie Lawrence is an English
actress, best known for playing the role of Diane Butcher
in the BBC
soap opera
, EastEnders
.
Lawrence initially trained to be a dancer, but after tearing a muscle in her groin
she was forced to give it up and she turned to acting instead. She trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School
and during this time she secured her first acting role when she became a regular cast member in BBC's Grange Hill
. After graduating from drama school in 1988, Lawrence was instantly cast as Diane Butcher, the bohemian
daughter of Frank Butcher
(Mike Reid
), in the popular soap opera EastEnders. She remained in the role until 1991, and returned for four brief stints in 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2008.
Lawrence initially quit her role in EastEnders to launch herself as a pop star. She enjoyed minor chart
success in 1991, when her cover
of Donna Summer
's 1977 hit "Love's Unkind
" (produced by Pete Hammond and Simon Cowell
) reached #21 in the UK Singles Chart
. A further nine songs were recorded for an album but the project was shelved, after she went on to work with the successful pop writers and producers, Stock Aitken and Waterman, recording a follow-up single, "Secrets
", a track taken from Kylie Minogue
's Rhythm Of Love
album. However, the single was withdrawn before its release, her pop career stalled and she returned to acting.
Lawrence's other notable television credits include Brother Cadfael (1994) with Derek Jacobi
and playing Neil Morrissey
's girlfriend in the BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly
(1995). She has also tried her hand at presenting
on the children's television shows Going Live and with Timmy Mallett
on Timmy Towers.
In theatre, Lawrence has played Janet in the West End
's adaptation of The Rocky Horror Show
and was also a lead in Daisy Pulls It Off
. She has appeared in many touring plays, most notably in Alan Bennett
's one-woman show Talking Heads
.
Lawrence began her association with the hit 1970s musical Boogie Nights
in 2001 and has played the leading female, Debs, on two major tours. She also starred in the sequel Boogie Nights 2 - This Time It's The 80s, alongside David Essex
, which did a nationwide tour in 2004 and 2005.
In December 2006, Lawrence starred as Peter Pan (opposite Nigel Havers
's Captain Hook
) at the Wycombe Swan
and in 2007 opposite David Essex again as Peter Pan at the Derngate
in Northampton.
In December 2007, it was announced that Lawrence would return to reprise her role as Diane Butcher in EastEnders for four episodes in spring 2008, for the funeral of Diane's father, Frank Butcher.
She is also involved in the touring show, Simply Ballroom, as one of the presenters.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actress, best known for playing the role of Diane Butcher
Diane Butcher
Diane Maureen Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sophie Lawrence. Diane appeared as a regular character between 1988 and 1991, when Lawrence decided to leave. The character made several brief returns in 1993, 1994, and 1997...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
.
Lawrence initially trained to be a dancer, but after tearing a muscle in her groin
Groin
In human anatomy, the groin areas are the two creases at the junction of the torso with the legs, on either side of the pubic area. This is also known as the medial compartment of the thigh. A pulled groin muscle usually refers to a painful injury sustained by straining the hip adductor muscles...
she was forced to give it up and she turned to acting instead. She trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School
Sylvia Young Theatre School
Sylvia Young Theatre School is an independent fee-paying stage school, in Westminster, London, named after its founder and Principal, Sylvia Young.-Outline:...
and during this time she secured her first acting role when she became a regular cast member in BBC's Grange Hill
Grange Hill
Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television...
. After graduating from drama school in 1988, Lawrence was instantly cast as Diane Butcher, the bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
daughter of Frank Butcher
Frank Butcher
Francis Aloysius "Frank" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Mike Reid. Frank made his first appearance on-screen as a guest character in 1987 but, due to a positive viewer reception, he was reintroduced in 1988 as a regular. Reid took a long...
(Mike Reid
Mike Reid (entertainer)
Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter from Hackney in east London, who is best remembered for playing the role of Frank Butcher in EastEnders and hosting the popular children's TV show Runaround...
), in the popular soap opera EastEnders. She remained in the role until 1991, and returned for four brief stints in 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2008.
Lawrence initially quit her role in EastEnders to launch herself as a pop star. She enjoyed minor chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
success in 1991, when her cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
's 1977 hit "Love's Unkind
Love's Unkind
"Love's Unkind" is a single by Donna Summer from her album, I Remember Yesterday, which combined modern disco beats with sounds of previous decades. "Love's Unkind" has stories of high school crushes and love triangles. It became one of her biggest hits in the UK, peaking at number three, while it...
" (produced by Pete Hammond and Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
) reached #21 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. A further nine songs were recorded for an album but the project was shelved, after she went on to work with the successful pop writers and producers, Stock Aitken and Waterman, recording a follow-up single, "Secrets
Rhythm of Love (Kylie Minogue album)
Australian Tour Souvenir/The Gold Album# "Step Back in Time" – 7:55# "What Do I Have to Do" – 7:08# "Shocked" – 3:10Australian limited edition CD album repackaged with SHOCKED single...
", a track taken from Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
's Rhythm Of Love
Rhythm of Love (Kylie Minogue album)
Australian Tour Souvenir/The Gold Album# "Step Back in Time" – 7:55# "What Do I Have to Do" – 7:08# "Shocked" – 3:10Australian limited edition CD album repackaged with SHOCKED single...
album. However, the single was withdrawn before its release, her pop career stalled and she returned to acting.
Lawrence's other notable television credits include Brother Cadfael (1994) with Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...
and playing Neil Morrissey
Neil Morrissey
Neil Anthony Morrissey is an English actor, media personality and businessman. He is best known for his role as Tony in Men Behaving Badly....
's girlfriend in the BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly
Men Behaving Badly
Men Behaving Badly is a British comedy that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang and his flatmates, Dermot Povey and Tony Smart It was first broadcast on ITV in 1992...
(1995). She has also tried her hand at presenting
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
on the children's television shows Going Live and with Timmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett is a TV presenter and broadcaster in the UK. He achieved cult status on BBC Radio Oxford and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and later on TV-am...
on Timmy Towers.
In theatre, Lawrence has played Janet in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
's adaptation of The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
and was also a lead in Daisy Pulls It Off
Daisy Pulls It Off
Daisy Pulls It Off is a comedy play by Denise Deegan. It is a parody of wholesome adventure stories about life in a 1920s girls' English boarding school, such as those by Angela Brazil...
. She has appeared in many touring plays, most notably in Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
's one-woman show Talking Heads
Talking Heads (plays)
Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by British playwright Alan Bennett. The two series were first broadcast in 1988 and 1998, and have since been broadcast on BBC Radio and included on the A-level and GCSE English Literature syllabus.A West End theatre...
.
Lawrence began her association with the hit 1970s musical Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights (musical)
Boogie Nights is a British musical, based upon the pop music of the 1970s, written by Jon Conway with Shane Richie and Terry Morrison.-Plot:...
in 2001 and has played the leading female, Debs, on two major tours. She also starred in the sequel Boogie Nights 2 - This Time It's The 80s, alongside David Essex
David Essex
David Essex OBE is an English musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Since the 1970s, Essex has attained nineteen Top 40 singles in the UK , and sixteen Top 40 albums...
, which did a nationwide tour in 2004 and 2005.
In December 2006, Lawrence starred as Peter Pan (opposite Nigel Havers
Nigel Havers
Nigel Allan Havers is an English actor. He is probably best known for his BAFTA-nominated role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, and for his role as Dr. Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up...
's Captain Hook
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
) at the Wycombe Swan
Wycombe Swan
Wycombe Swan is an HQ theatre in High Wycombe. The theatre in opened in November 1992 by Wycombe District Council and has been acquired by HQ Theatre since. it has a capacity of 1076. It presents a varied programme including a pantomime every Christmas. At the Swan itself there were 280...
and in 2007 opposite David Essex again as Peter Pan at the Derngate
Derngate
Derngate is a part of Northampton, England, with a theatre complex of the same name. It refers to a gate in the old town walls, which was located there....
in Northampton.
In December 2007, it was announced that Lawrence would return to reprise her role as Diane Butcher in EastEnders for four episodes in spring 2008, for the funeral of Diane's father, Frank Butcher.
She is also involved in the touring show, Simply Ballroom, as one of the presenters.