THE MANY FACES OF: Julia Davis

The writer, director and star of Sally4Ever (10pm, Sky Atlantic), Julia, 52, is a force of nature in offbeat British comedy. Here’s a rundown of her varied career to date…

Formative years: Growing up in Guildford and later Bath, Julia sang in folk bands as a teenager. She met Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones after college, and formed an improvisation troupe.

Early TV comedy: After appearing in ensemble comedy Big Train (1998), she co-wrote and co-starred with Rob Brydon in comedy Human Remains (2000). In each episode, Julia and Rob played partners who don’t like each other. In Gavin & Stacey, Julia played Dawn Sutcliffe (2007-09), who constantly bickered with her husband, Pete.

Solo writing: In 2004, she wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed

Nighty Night, playing Jill Tyrrell, a woman whose obsession with her married neighbour, Don (Angus Deayton), became increasingly psychotic. Moving from the BBC to Sky, the first series of dark period comedy Hunderby (2012) won her a writing Bafta, and was followed by Camping

(2016), one of the most gleefully twisted British comedies of recent years – remade in America this year to far lesser acclaim. Acting: In addition to roles she wrote for herself, Julia has done a wide variety of acting gigs. She starred as Fanny Cradock in TV film Fear Of Fanny

(2006) and as Elizabeth Elliot in a TV adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion

(2007), and has been in films as diverse as Love Actually (2003), Cemetery Junction (2010) and Phantom Thread (2017).