Misplaced Pages

Caroline Catz
Catz on the set of Doc Martin in 2009
Born	Caroline Caplan (1969-10-19) 19 October 1969 (age 55) Manchester, Lancashire, England
Occupation(s)	Actress and narrator
Years active	1991–present
Television	The Vice (1999–2003) Doc Martin (2004–2022) DCI Banks (2012–2016) I Want My Wife Back (2016) A Small Light (2023)
Spouse	Michael Higgs ​(m. 1997)​
Children	2

Caroline Catz (born Caroline Caplan; 19 October 1969) is a British film, television, and theatre actress and narrator. She is best known for her role as Louisa Glasson in Doc Martin (2004–2022). Her other major roles have included Auguste van Pels in A Small Light, Detective Inspector Kate Ashurst in Murder in Suburbia, Detective Inspector Helen Morton in DCI Banks, and PC Cheryl Hutchins in The Vice.

Early life

Catz was born on 19 October 1969 in Manchester to Bernard and Rosemary Caplan.

Television and cinema

She played opposite Michael Kitchen in the TV movie The Guilty in June 1992. In 1994, she took a lead role in the BBC's All Quiet on the Preston Front, which ran for three series. She followed this with a spell in The Bill as Rosie Fox, during which she met Michael Higgs, who later became her husband. Her part in The Bill was the first of four long-term roles in which she played police officers; in The Vice she was a PC, in Murder in Suburbia and DCI Banks she was a Detective Inspector.

From 2004 to 2022, Catz starred in ITV's Doc Martin, in which she played primary school headmistress Louisa Ellingham (née Glasson).

Catz continued to appear in one-off roles, including In Denial of Murder, in which she played real-life murder victim Wendy Sewell, and in an episode of Hotel Babylon. She also appeared in a two-part episode of Single Handed, entitled The Stolen Child, as Dr Maggie Hunter. Originally shown in Ireland in January 2008, the episode was broadcast by ITV on 9 August 2009.

From 2012 until 2016, she played Detective Inspector Helen Morton in DCI Banks. In November 2016, ITV cancelled the programme.

In 2014, Catz directed the documentary titled A Message to the World...Whatever Happened to Jesse Hector? Also in 2014, she narrated the BBC's television documentary Ebola – The Search for a Cure.

Catz starred in the 2016 BBC One sitcom series I Want My Wife Back, playing the role of Bex.

In 2017, Catz wrote, directed, and starred in a short documentary on Delia Derbyshire, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes, (2017), which was screened at the BFI London Film Festival. She expanded it into a feature-length film that debuted in October 2020.

In 2018, she was the narrator on Britain's Biggest Warship, a documentary series about the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08).

Radio

She co-starred in Déjà Vu, a radio play broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 4 February 2009.

Stage

In November 2008, she played Anna, the puppet maker, in the stage production On Emotion. She has previously appeared in the West End in the Out of Joint/Royal Court Theatre production of Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking in 1997, which earned controversy for its subject matter, while Catz herself appeared topless in one scene. However, she gained notice for her performance by critics, as well as for being the only woman in the production.

In 2012, she played Marlene in Caryl Churchill's play Top Girls directed by Max Stafford-Clark. In 2018, Catz played Susan in Curtains at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. Other theatre roles include Haunted (West End), The Recruiting Officer (Chichester Festival Theatre), Dogs Barking (Bush Theatre) and Six Degrees of Separation at the Royal Court Theatre.

Personal life

Catz is married to actor Michael Higgs, whom she met on the set of The Bill. They have a son born in 2001 and a daughter born in 2006.

Filmography

Television

Film

References

1. "Caroline Caplan • Birth • England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008". FamilySearch. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
2. "ITV axes DCI Banks after six years – and Brief Encounters is cancelled too". Digital Spy. 9 November 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
3. "ITV axes DCI Banks after five series". 30 June 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
4. ""Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes"". DeliaDerbyshireDay.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
5. "Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes". imdb.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
6. "Britain's Biggest Warship". BBC. BBC. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
7. "BBC – Languages – French – Déjà Vu – One Play. Two Audiences". www.bbc.co.uk.
8. On Emotion at Soho Theatre The Telegraph, 18 November 2008
9. "A CurtainUp London Review:Shopping and Fucking".
10. Treneman, Ann (1 March 2018). "Life is too short for this euthanasia black comedy". The Times. No. 72471. p. 27. ISSN 0140-0460.
11. "DCI Banks star Caroline Catz: 'Juggling work and family life is difficult'". Daily and Sunday Express. 15 February 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
12. "Dramatisation of Bakewell cemetery murder filming for BBC ONE". BBC Press Office. BBC. 29 August 2003. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
13. "Doc Martin Christmas Special". itv.com/presscentre. Retrieved 1 December 2022.

External links

• Caroline Catz at IMDb
• Caroline Catz on Twitter

• Living people
• 20th-century English actresses
• 21st-century English actresses
• Actresses from Manchester
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses
• 1969 births