Francesca Gonshaw


Francesca Gonshaw is an English former actress who appeared in a number of television, theatre and cinema productions in the 1980s.

Early life

Gonshaw's father came to England as a child with his parents as Russian White emigres fleeing from the Bolshevik Revolution. Francesca Gonshaw was born in Marylebone, London in 1959, and received her formal education at St Paul's Girls' School. The family relocated from London to Marbella, Spain in 1976. At the age of 17 she returned to England to study for her A Levels in Cambridge. She subsequently studied acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, and painting at the Byam Shaw School of Art, and worked as a model.

Acting career

Gonshaw began her television acting career in the early 1980s. In 1982 she appeared in a BBC television play entitled Shades.
She appeared as the character Arsinoe in the 1983 BBC television classical Roman history drama series The Cleopatras. That same year, she played a rape victim in Ian Richardson's The Hound of the Baskervilles. From 1984 to 1985, she played the character Lisa Walters in the Central soap-opera Crossroads.
From 1984 to 1986, she played the role of Maria Recamier in the BBC's Allo 'Allo! television situation comedy series set in occupied France during World War II. She left the cast of Allo 'Allo after its third series to take up the role of Amanda Parker in the third series of the BBC television drama series Howards' Way in 1987.
Gonshaw appeared in the historical/science fiction cinema film ', and played the character of Senorita Rodriguez in the television film dramatization of the Barbara Cartland novel A Ghost in Monte Carlo. She appeared as a supporting actor in the first series of the Anglo-American television drama She-Wolf of London''.

Theatre

In 1982, Gonshaw played Kate in You Should See Us Now by Peter Tinniswood, at the Greenwich Theatre. the cast also included Simon Cadell, Christopher Cazenove and Pauline Yates.
In the mid-1980s she joined the New Shakespeare Company's tour of thirteen countries in the Middle East, portraying Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In 1990 she played Ophelia in Hamlet, at the Brixton Assembly Rooms, Pentameters in Hampstead, and the Shaw Theatre. The title role was played by Stephen Haynes, who had been sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment in France for dealing in heroin, but then pardoned by President Mitterrand of France. Having promised to do something positive with his life if pardoned, Haynes decided that he would stage Hamlet. The production was helped by Trevor Nunn and Sir John Gielgud. Timothy West provided his voice to play the Ghost. Haynes had AIDS, and the proceeds of the performances were to benefit AIDS charities.

Performances in other media

In 1992, she appeared in the pop music video for the Peter Gabriel single release "Digging in the Dirt" which won the Grammy for Best Music Video – Short Form.

Post-acting career

Gonshaw retired from acting in the early 1990s, and took up the post of Senior Vice-President of Creative Affairs with Miramax Books & Films. In 2001 she was a casting agent for the film The Goose Creek Story.
From 2009 she has been an artist, and was the curator of the 'She has a Space' gallery in London. She exhibited at the 7–8 October 2009 Art for Youth event at the Mall Galleries.
She resides in West London, and since 2011 has occasionally appeared at memorabilia collectors conventions with the former cast of the 1980s comedy series Allo Allo!

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotesRef.
1988The Hound of the BaskervillesYoung Girl in MireTV Movie.
1987Howard's WayAmanda HowardTV Series
1986BigglesMarieMovie
1984–1987'Allo 'Allo!Maria RecamierTV Series
1984Hook, Line and SinkerAmandaTV
1983The Cleopatras Part 8 35 BCArsinoeTV Mini-series
1983The Cleopatras Part 6 51 BCArsinoeTV Mini-series
1982Gesualdo the Princecast memberTV
1982The British Are ComingMariaPilot episode for 'Allo 'Allo!
1982ShadesJulie/SueTV