Selina Cadell

Selina Jane Cadell, born on 12 August 1953 in London, is an English actress who comes from a distinguished theatrical family. She is the younger sister of actor Simon Cadell, the granddaughter of actress Jean Cadell, and the great-niece of Scottish artist Francis Cadell. Her career has spanned British television, film, and theatre across more than four decades, encompassing both supporting and leading roles.

Cadell is perhaps most widely recognized for her role as Sally Tishell in the long-running ITV medical dramedy Doc Martin, in which she was part of the main cast. Her television work extends across several decades and includes appearances in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: A Pocket Full of Rye (1985) as Mary Dove, Victoria Wood (1989), Jeeves and Wooster (1993), Pie in the Sky (1995), and Midsomer Murders: The Killings at Badger's Drift (1997) as Phyllis Cadel. She portrayed Caroline Sheppard in Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in 2000, and appeared in The Catherine Tate Show in 2006 and as Eleanor Crouch in Midsomer Murders: Midsomer Life in 2008. Further television credits include Dorothy Crowther in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and Dean Mieke Miedema in Lab Rats. In the Lewis episode Allegory of Love (2009), she played Professor Bernice Rutherford, and in the 2011 Foyle's War episode Among the Few, she portrayed Pamela Bennett. She briefly appeared in the 2012 remake of Gambit and played Sister Gregory in the Father Brown episode The Bride of Christ in 2013. That same year, she took on the title role of Miss Froy in the BBC television film The Lady Vanishes, directed by Diarmuid Lawrence from a screenplay by Fiona Seres, a character previously portrayed by May Whitty and Angela Lansbury in earlier versions. She appeared as Professor Alice Sandwell in the New Tricks episode Buried Treasure and joined the cast of the Acorn TV series Queens of Mystery in 2019. Cadell made a third appearance in Midsomer Murders as Venetia Butts in Book of the Dead in 2023.

Her film work includes Not Quite Paradise (1985), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Madness of King George (1994), Mrs. Dalloway (1997), Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War (2002), Match Point (2005), and Snow Cake (2006).

On stage, Cadell appeared in Sam Mendes' BAM production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and played Maria in Mendes' production of Twelfth Night for the Donmar Warehouse, which ran in both London and New York. Her New York stage work includes a Broadway appearance in 1997 in Stanley. In 2015, she directed the Royal Shakespeare Company's first production of Love for Love by William Congreve.

Beyond acting, Cadell provided the voice of Rebecca Puddle Duck, Jemima Puddle Duck's sister-in-law, in the BBC and Fuji Television Network animated children's series The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. In October 2019, she was the featured guest on an episode of the BBC Radio 3 programme Private Passions. In 2017, Cadell disclosed that American actress Sigourney Weaver has been a close friend for more than forty years, and the two appeared together onscreen when Weaver guest starred in Doc Martin.