Jamila Massey
Encyclopedia
Jamila Massey is an India
n actress and writer
. Massey has had a long career on UK television
and radio. She is possibly best known for playing Auntie Satya in the long running radio soap The Archers
, Jamila Ranjha in Mind Your Language
, and her role as Neelam Kapoor in EastEnders
.
with her parents in 1946 at the age of 12. Her father fought in the Second World War
, but remained in the UK and became a producer for the BBC
.
As a child Massey acted for the BBC in radio children's programmes. She attended King's College London
and graduated in Latin
, Urdu
and English
. She had aspirations to train as an actress; however, her mother frowned upon such a career. Massey's mother refused to allow her to attend drama school after the death of her father, so she was forced to use subterfuge to fulfil her acting ambitions.
. Her first film role was in Sink the Bismarck!
(1960), where she was used to translate and report a news section from the film into Urdu — announcing the sinking of the British battleship HMS Hood
.
She continued to work extensively on radio in English, Urdu, Hindi
and Punjabi
as well as for the German
service of the BBC. Years later she acted in Tribunal, a ZDF
television serial in German, with leading Europe
an actors. She joined the Afro-Asian Committee of Equity and continued to work in film and television. Roles for Asian actors were minor during her early career, but she was given parts in series such as Crossroads (1964); Within These Walls
(1976); The Next Man
(1976); Z-Cars
(1976–1977); Target (1977); Mind Your Language
(1977–79); Play for Today
(1977, 1978); Empire Road
(1979); Angels
(1981); Minder
(1982); The Jewel in the Crown (1984); The Bill
(1984); Albion Market
(1985); Chance in a Million
(1986); Madame Sousatzka
(1988); Great Balls of Fire!
(1989); Brookside
(1989) playing Manju Batra and Pie in the Sky (1994).
In the mid-1990s she was cast as the recurring character Auntie Satya in Radio 4
's daily agricultural soap opera
, The Archers
, fulfilling one of her life's ambitions. Massey was the second actress to play the role. She had initially been asked to audition for the part, but was forced to turn it down due to work commitments. A year later she was offered the same part when the role was recast. Her character makes occasional appearances to visit her niece, Usha Gupta (Souad Faress
).
In 1997 she was cast in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders
. She played Neelam Kapoor, the domineering mother of market-trader Sanjay
(Deepak Verma
) until 1998.
Other acting credits include Arabian Nights
(2000); Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
(2001); Perfect World (2001); Doctors
(2002); All About Me
(2003); Chicken Tikka Masala (2005).
Theatre work includes The Great Celestial Cow (Royal Court), Conduct Unbecoming
which toured Canada
as well as the UK, Song for a Sanctuary (Lyric Hammersmith) and Women of the Dust (Tamasha Theatre
and Bristol Old Vic
). She also played Kasturba in Mahatma versus Gandhi in the BBC Home and World Services and Harvey Virdi in Calcutta Kosher, a play on the Indian Jewish Community of Kolkata
.
As well as acting, Massey has also co-authored several books with her husband, writer Reginald Massey. One was a novel, The Immigrants, based on field research among first-generation Asians in Britain. The other books were The Music of India, for which Ravi Shankar
provided a foreword, and The Dances of India. Massey is deeply interested and involved in music, she has introduced several Indian musicians and dancers to audiences in the West.
Massey appeared in Coronation Street
in February 2010 as one of Sunita's aunts.
, Wales
.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n actress and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. Massey has had a long career on UK television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
and radio. She is possibly best known for playing Auntie Satya in the long running radio soap The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
, Jamila Ranjha in Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language is a British comedy television series, that premiered on ITV in late 1977. Produced by LWT and directed by Stuart Allen, it is set in an adult education college in London and focuses on the English as a Foreign Language class taught by Mr. Jeremy Brown, portrayed by Barry Evans,...
, and her role as Neelam Kapoor in 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...
.
Early life
Massey came to the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
with her parents in 1946 at the age of 12. Her father fought in the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but remained in the UK and became a producer for 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...
.
As a child Massey acted for the BBC in radio children's programmes. She attended King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
and graduated in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
and English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
. She had aspirations to train as an actress; however, her mother frowned upon such a career. Massey's mother refused to allow her to attend drama school after the death of her father, so she was forced to use subterfuge to fulfil her acting ambitions.
Career
She began her career as an extraExtra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
. Her first film role was in Sink the Bismarck!
Sink the Bismarck!
Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960 black-and-white British war film based on the book, the "Last Nine Days of the Bismarck" by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. To date, it is the only movie made that deals directly with the operations, chase, and...
(1960), where she was used to translate and report a news section from the film into Urdu — announcing the sinking of the British battleship HMS Hood
HMS Hood (51)
HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. One of four s ordered in mid-1916, her design—although drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction—still had serious limitations. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be...
.
She continued to work extensively on radio in English, Urdu, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
as well as for the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
service of the BBC. Years later she acted in Tribunal, a ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
television serial in German, with leading Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an actors. She joined the Afro-Asian Committee of Equity and continued to work in film and television. Roles for Asian actors were minor during her early career, but she was given parts in series such as Crossroads (1964); Within These Walls
Within These Walls
Within These Walls is a British television drama programme made by London Weekend Television for ITV and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison...
(1976); The Next Man
The Next Man
The Next Man is a 1976 American political action thriller film starring Sean Connery, Adolfo Celi, Cornelia Sharpe and Charles Cioffi. Critical reaction at its opening was not positive. Music for the film features New York guitarist Frederic Hand.-Plot:The film is set during the Arab oil embargo...
(1976); Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
(1976–1977); Target (1977); Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language is a British comedy television series, that premiered on ITV in late 1977. Produced by LWT and directed by Stuart Allen, it is set in an adult education college in London and focuses on the English as a Foreign Language class taught by Mr. Jeremy Brown, portrayed by Barry Evans,...
(1977–79); Play for Today
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
(1977, 1978); Empire Road
Empire Road
Empire Road is a British television series, made by the BBC in 1978 and 1979.The series was the first British television series to be written, acted and directed entirely by black artists...
(1979); Angels
Angels (TV series)
Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
(1981); Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(1982); The Jewel in the Crown (1984); The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
(1984); Albion Market
Albion Market
Albion Market was a short-lived British soap opera, intended as a companion to Coronation Street on ITV.Coronation Street, ITV's perennial soap opera, celebrated its 25th anniversary in December 1985. Granada TV launched Albion Market in August of that year, six months after the BBC's EastEnders...
(1985); Chance in a Million
Chance in a Million
Chance in a Million was a British sitcom broadcast between 1984 and 1986, produced by Thames Television for Channel 4.The series was co-written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen and starred Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn....
(1986); Madame Sousatzka
Madame Sousatzka
Madame Sousatzka is a 1988 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is based upon the novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens.-Plot synopsis:...
(1988); Great Balls of Fire!
Great Balls of Fire! (film)
Great Balls of Fire! is a 1989 American biographical film directed by Jim McBride and starring Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis. Based on a biography by Myra Lewis and Murray M. Silver Jr., the screenplay is written by McBride and Jack Baran...
(1989); Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
(1989) playing Manju Batra and Pie in the Sky (1994).
In the mid-1990s she was cast as the recurring character Auntie Satya in Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's daily agricultural 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,...
, The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
, fulfilling one of her life's ambitions. Massey was the second actress to play the role. She had initially been asked to audition for the part, but was forced to turn it down due to work commitments. A year later she was offered the same part when the role was recast. Her character makes occasional appearances to visit her niece, Usha Gupta (Souad Faress
Souad Faress
Souad Faress is a stage, radio, television and film actress. Born in Ghana to Irish and Syrian parents, she is now best known within the United Kingdom for her portrayal of the solicitor Usha Gupta, in the long-running BBC Radio 4 serial The Archers....
).
In 1997 she was cast in the popular BBC soap opera 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...
. She played Neelam Kapoor, the domineering mother of market-trader Sanjay
Sanjay Kapoor (EastEnders)
Sanjay Kapoor is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Deepak Verma.Sanjay the market trader had an eye for the ladies and a weakness for gambling...
(Deepak Verma
Deepak Verma
Deepak Verma, is a British Asian actor, writer and television/film producer.- Career :Verma trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama for three years . He made his television debut in the Scottish detective series, Taggart in 1992...
) until 1998.
Other acting credits include Arabian Nights
Arabian Nights (TV miniseries)
Arabian Nights is a two-part 2000 American/British miniseries, adapted by Peter Barnes from Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation of the medieval epic One Thousand and One Nights. Mili Avital and Dougray Scott stars as Scheherazade and Shahryar respectively...
(2000); Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years is the fifth book in the Adrian Mole series, written by Sue Townsend. The book was first published in 1999 by Michael Joseph. It is set from April 30, 1997 until May 2, 1998. Adrian is 30 years of age...
(2001); Perfect World (2001); Doctors
Doctors (BBC Soap Opera)
Doctors is a British daytime television soap opera, set in the fictional Midland town of Letherbridge, defined as being close to the City of Birmingham. It was created by Chris Murray; Mal Young drove its development, and Carson Black was the original producer. The first episode was broadcast on...
(2002); All About Me
All About Me
All About Me is a British television sitcom starring Jasper Carrott about a multicultural family living in Birmingham. It was broadcast on BBC One from 2002 to 2004...
(2003); Chicken Tikka Masala (2005).
Theatre work includes The Great Celestial Cow (Royal Court), Conduct Unbecoming
Conduct Unbecoming (play)
Conduct Unbecoming is a play by Barry England. The plot concerns a scandal in a British regiment stationed in India in the 1880s. The widow of a heroic officer is assaulted by an unrevealed comrade in arms and an investigation takes place to determine his identity.It was first staged in May 1969 at...
which toured Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
as well as the UK, Song for a Sanctuary (Lyric Hammersmith) and Women of the Dust (Tamasha Theatre
Tamasha Theatre Company
Tamasha is a British theatre company founded in 1989 by director Kristine Landon-Smith and actor / writer Sudha Bhuchar with a mission to bring contemporary drama of Asian influence to the British stage....
and Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic
The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...
). She also played Kasturba in Mahatma versus Gandhi in the BBC Home and World Services and Harvey Virdi in Calcutta Kosher, a play on the Indian Jewish Community of Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
.
As well as acting, Massey has also co-authored several books with her husband, writer Reginald Massey. One was a novel, The Immigrants, based on field research among first-generation Asians in Britain. The other books were The Music of India, for which Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
provided a foreword, and The Dances of India. Massey is deeply interested and involved in music, she has introduced several Indian musicians and dancers to audiences in the West.
Massey appeared in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
in February 2010 as one of Sunita's aunts.
Personal life
Massey and her husband, the author and poet Reginald Massey, live together in LlanidloesLlanidloes
Llanidloes is a town along the A470 road and B4518 road in Powys, within the historic county boundaries of Montgomeryshire , Mid Wales.It is the first town on the River Severn...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
.