Olivia Halinan | Introduction | Part Two

...Continued from Olivia Hallinan Introduction (Part One)
Olivia Hallinan plays the character of Laura Timmins in the BBC1 drama series Lark Rise to Candleford. This is a 10 part adaptation of Flora Thompson’s memoirs. It chronicles the lives of 19th Century folk living in small community, Lark Rise is a hamlet and Candleford is a neighbouring town. Sarah Lancashire provides the voice of Adult Laura as the story is told retrospectively. Olivia Hallinan is excellent in this role as the "cheeky" post office worker. Again she is surrounded by a strong cast including, Julia Sawalha (Dorcas Lane), Ben Miles (Sir Timothy Midwinter), Olivia Grant (Lady Adelaide Midwinter), Mark Heap (Thomas Brown), and Oliver Jackson Cohen (Phillip White). The programme has a large cast and most are suited very well to their rolls. Hallinan is slightly too old for her part as a 16 year old girl and the performances of Dawn French (Caroline Arless) are particularly poor. Dawn French is not an actress and this causes distraction from the highly polished performances from the rest of the cast. The accent used by most of the cast does not sound quite right for the Oxfordshire area. It appears to be a subtle combination of Norfolk and Dorset dialect.

Going on past evidence and recent performances Olivia Hallinan stands out from the crowd. Even when acting along side a strong cast of renowned actors and actresses. She always looks as though there is more going on inside her brain than meets the eye. It is this extra dimension that transfixes her audience into an almost hypnotic state. Olivia Hallinan certainly has the calibre to become one the greatest female actresses of all time.