We are delighted to announce our wonderful @jess_impiazzi has been confirmed to join the cast for the next series of the BBC crime drama ‘Strike: Troubled Blood’ based on the books by JK Rowling 🍿🌟 pic.twitter.com/MfTmipQDeE
— WGM Atlantic Talent & Literary Group (@WGMAtlantic) February 3, 2022
She should have been cast as Charlotte Campbell, no? From the Amazon page of her autobiography, Silver Linings:
When one door closes, and another plan is derailed, it’s time to seek out the ‘Silver Linings’ and step up to the challenge. Jess Impiazzi’s journey of self-discovery, hard lessons, heart-breaking moments, self-care and openness to transformation make for a raw, authentic and inspiring story about how to follow dreams, overcome challenges and celebrate kindness in many forms.
* Behind the scenes of popular reality TV shows
* Surviving and thriving through betrayal and divorce with England rugby international Denny Solomona.
* Living through anxiety, depression and attempted suicide. * Pursuing a career in acting and the good, the bad and the ugly of life in the limelight.
* Finding happiness working as an active ambassador for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
Jess is now a regular on the small and big screens, but the journey to where she is now, at 30 years old, has been far from straightforward.
Having been accepted into the Italia Conti drama school, Jess’s acting dreams were derailed when, aged 17, her mum became blind and Jess stepped in as her primary carer. Jess now champions the rights of the visually impaired with the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Jess writes movingly, openly and with humour about her time in front of the camera as a model and on popular television shows and films.
We learn what it really takes to get through the myriad auditions and what actually happens behind the scenes of reality TV – and what happens to the stars once the show ends. In Silver Linings, Jess opens up about how she faced major life challenges including supporting her alcoholic father, losing her 13-month-old nephew to meningitis while in her care, Jess’s mum’s sudden blindness, being betrayed by her ex-husband, and mental health issues including depression and anxiety.
A little short I admit at 5’6″ for the role of Strike’s old flame, but her mental health issues, failed marriage, and experience in Reality TeeVee Programming, not to mention her exotic eyes and beauty, make her an almost perfect match for Charlotte Campbell. And the height shouldn’t be an issue; the actor playing Strike is at least six inches shorter than his book counterpart, too.
I’m guessing, though, because we already have an actress in the Charlotte role, that Ms Impiazzi will be playing the younger Oonaugh Kennedy, the just off the boat Irish girl become playboy bunny. That role demands a healthy helping of brash and long-suffering in addition to being able to play the part of a cigarette girl at a Playboy Club.
Convince me I’m wrong — and no fair using evidence from Bronte Studios. What Troubled Blood character do you think this actress will be portraying? Why?
With those eyes, I thought she’d make a good cold case murder victim (that’s a weird complement, but, you know, a really stunning face for the teasers.) But I think with her body shape and height, Oonaugh. Assuming they keep the clue involving Margot’s height. I feel like they cast the shortest actors they can find to keep Strike looking taller.
Do we already know the answer?
I don’t know the answer.
If she is cast as Oonaugh, I look forward to seeing how they age her 40 years and make her an Anglican priest!
Well, she’s not playing the part of Oonaugh Kennedy.
That role has gone to Genevieve Hulme-Beaman.
Gloria?
Ms Impiazzi’s part must be very small. She isn’t listed in the BBC Media Centre’s press release about the new casting for Troubled Blood.
For pictures of this new cast, see @TottenhamStrike.
Ms. Hulme-Beaman is young! That suggests we’ll be seeing more of Oonaugh in flashback than as the 60-something vicar and grandmother of 5. That makes me think Ms. Impiazzi is Margot.
I am still wondering how they will handle showing the same character 40 years apart. TV shows have a much more limited budget than films; I’m certain some decisions (Robin driving through a field in the Silkworm instead of the snowy near-crash) were made for financial reasons. So, is it cheaper to hire a look-alike actor of an other age, or do the age-advancing make-up (which is a pretty elaborate process if you want it to look realistic).
That makes me think Ms. Impiazzi is Margot.
I confess my first response was “No way.” She isn’t even listed on the BBC press release and the actress playing Margot would have to be, right?
I took my own advice and looked at the actors’ pictures compiled by @TottenhamStrike.
None of them look like Margot. The closest is Abigail Lawrie and, as these “Hottest Photos” suggest, she fails the Bombshell Test the actress playing Margot will have to pass, assuming the meh Charlotte and short handsome Cormoran castings were just aberrations in looking nothing like the characters described in the novels.
So, maybe Jess Impiazzi, reality series star and professional celebrity-model, will be Margot. I suspect this means she will appear only in non-speaking flashback memories and in photographs, hence her not being listed in the BBC release.
Just how tall is Tom Burke?!
Tom Burke, according to his page on CelebHeights.com (I kid you not; there is such a thing), says he is six feet tall on his CV but is actually 5′ 10.”
Strike’s height is never given in the books but he is said to be taller than 6′ 3″ Matt Cunliffe and is almost always the tallest, and, because of his girth, the most imposing presence in the room (though he is skilled in diminishing himself and that presence). My guess is that he’s 6′ 5″ tall, and, with his ursine build (Robin more than once comments on his resemblance to a giant bear), pube-like hair, and boxer’s fight-weathered face — Beethoven after ten rounds — the Peg-Legged Private Investigator is a long, long way from Tom ‘Eye-Candy Burke, as distant as the adaptation Charlotte is from the Venereal goddess described in the books.
Along with you, I imagine, I say, “So what?” — except that screened images in my experience always supplant those created by the imagination from a text, which is a real loss. Rowling is the only person on planet Earth, I think, who does not think of Daniel Radcliffe when thinking of Harry Potter, a la Clark Gable and Rhett Butler. Tom Burke, alas, shorter, more svelte, and suave than book Cormoran, has made thinking about Strike as he was conceived and exists in the novels that much harder.
Fine actor, though…
Hi John,
Regarding your last comment (which still stands as valid after what I’m about to say, but the canon nitpicker in me had to mention it, sorry!) It *is* actually explicitly mentioned in the books that Strike is 6’3”. Here are a couple of notable mentions:
“Strike could barely feel his knee now. He had become six foot three of highly concentrated potential. ” SW, chapter 37
“Six foot three and scowling, Strike’s shirt hung open, revealing a monkeyish mass of dark chest hair.” COE, chapter 3
“He was pleased to find that the bed could just accommodate his six foot three and after all, a small space was always easier to navigate once his prosthesis had been removed.” COE, chapter 14
So as it stands, book!Strike is definitely still taller than TV!Strike, but just by 3-4” rather than 5 or more. 🙂
Thank you for this correction and the citations! I really need to check these things before I go on a rant and appreciate your kindness in correcting me as you have.
I will only try to save face by saying the difference between 5’10” and 6’3″ is five inches not three or four and that this is almost half a foot difference. Strike-incarnate, I think it safe to say, would still tower over Burke, the way Burke would me (I am 5’4″ like Rowling, which is to say “short”). As you wrote, getting these numbers right doesn’t nullify the point that Burke’s lack of height, girth, and, well, ugliness, means he was miscast in the role.
But it is important to get the numbers right, for which correction, again, I thank you!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15844102/
Gloria Conti!