Biography
Delia Lindsay is a skilled and adaptable English actress who has featured in numerous British films and television dramas from 1970 to the present.
In 1970, she portrayed "Alice" in Scars of Dracula, a Gothic horror film produced by Hammer Films at Elstree Studios. Her character is romantically linked to "Paul" (Christopher Matthews), the brother of the protagonist, much to the dismay of her father, the town's burgomaster (Bob Todd). Her scenes offer much-needed comic relief in what is arguably the most violent and blood-soaked installment in Hammer's "Dracula" series. In 1978, she married Jeremy Sinden, a gifted English character actor. Their first daughter, Kezia, was born on 18 December 1979, followed by a second daughter, Harriet, on 1 July 1984. Tragically, her husband passed away from lung cancer in 1996 at the age of forty-five.
While raising her young family, Delia continued her acting career. During this period, she made guest appearances in several beloved television sitcoms. She played "Norma" in the episode "The Restaurant" from the first series of A Fine Romance, first broadcast on 15 November 1981. This series, written by Bob Larbey, starred the real-life couple Michael Williams and Judi Dench. Delia also appeared as "Mrs. Highsmith" in the fifth episode, "Des. Det. Res.," of the first series of Fresh Fields, which aired on 4 April 1984. This sitcom featured Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers.
In 1999, Delia took on the role of "Lady Basildon" in An Ideal Husband, which many consider the finest of director Oliver Parker's Oscar Wilde adaptations. Wilde's notes on the original play describe the Countess of Basildon as a woman "of exquisite fragility," whose "affectation of manner has a delicate charm."
In 2002, Delia portrayed "Mrs. Arrowpoint" in a well-received BBC adaptation of Daniel Deronda, the George Eliot novel first published in 1876. This mini-series was produced by Louis Marks and written by Andrew Davies, the same team behind the 1994 dramatization of Middlemarch, which featured Delia's late husband Jeremy Sinden as "Captain Lydgate." In Daniel Deronda, Delia's character employs "Herr Klesmer" (Allan Corduner) as a music tutor for her daughter, "Catherine Arrowpoint" (Anna Steel). As George Eliot noted, "to have a first-rate musician in your house is a privilege of wealth, and Catherine's talent demanded every advantage."
In 2010, Delia appeared as "Barbara" in the topical BBC drama On Expenses, a television film exploring the political scandal involving fraudulent expenses claims by members of the British parliament.
