Christine McKenna was a British

United 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...

 actress during the 1970s and 1980s and best known for playing "Christina" in the television series, Flambards

Flambards (TV series)

Flambards was a television series of 13 episodes which was broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1979 and in the United States in 1980. The series was based on the three Flambards novels of English author K. M...

.

McKenna was a drama student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...

, in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, in the early 1970s. During her summer holidays she learned stage management and theatrical wardrobe at the Byre Theatre

Byre Theatre

The Byre Theatre is a theatre in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. The original Byre Theatre was founded in 1933 by Alexander B Paterson, a local journalist and playwright, with help from a theatre group made up from members of Hope Park Church, St Andrews....

. Upon graduating, she appeared in productions for the National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

 and in the West End of London

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

, including Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...

´s, A Little Night Music

A Little Night Music

A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...

, with Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons

Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J...

 and Hermione Gingold

Hermione Gingold

Hermione Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, an image enhanced by her sharp nose and chin, as well as her deepening voice, a result of vocal nodes which her mother reportedly encouraged her not to remove. She starred on stage, on radio, in films, on...

, A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

, Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....

, and was "Polly" in, The Boy Friend

The Boy Friend

The Boy Friend is a musical by Sandy Wilson. The musical's original 1954 London production ran for 2,078 performances, making it briefly the third-longest running musical in West End or Broadway history until it was surpassed by Salad Days...

, with Glynis Johns

Glynis Johns

Glynis Johns is a South African-born Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer . With a career spanning seven decades, Johns is often cited as the "complete actress", who happens to be a trained pianist and singer...

, "Sally Bowles" in, Cabaret

Cabaret (musical)

Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....

, and "Moll" in Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1722, after his work as a journalist and pamphleteer. By 1722, Defoe had become a recognised novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719...

.

McKenna was also a member of the Royal Lyceum Theatre

Royal Lyceum Theatre

The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658 seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of UK£17,000 on behalf...

 company, in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, and with that company appeared in Kidnapped

Kidnapped (novel)

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis...

, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and played the "Principal Girl" in several traditional pantomimes.

Her television credits include 41 episodes of, The Kids from 47A

The Kids from 47A

The Kids from 47A was a British children's television series produced by ATV Network about four children whose widowed mother is taken into hospital, leaving them to cope on their own...

(1973–4), playing "Georgina Hogarth

Georgina Hogarth

Georgina Hogarth was the sister-in-law, housekeeper and adviser of English novelist Charles Dickens and the editor of two volumes of his collected letters after his death.-Biography:...

" in, Dickens of London

Dickens of London

Dickens of London is a 1976 television miniseries from Yorkshire Television based on the life of English novelist Charles Dickens. Both Dickens and his father John were played by British actor Roy Dotrice. The series was written by Wolf Mankowitz and Marc Miller...

, with Roy Dotrice

Roy Dotrice

Roy Dotrice, OBE is a British actor known for his Tony Award-winning Broadway performance in the revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten.-Life and career:...

 (1976), "Christina" in 13 episodes of, Flambards

Flambards (TV series)

Flambards was a television series of 13 episodes which was broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1979 and in the United States in 1980. The series was based on the three Flambards novels of English author K. M...

(1979), Friends and Other Lovers (1981), for ITV Playhouse

ITV Playhouse

ITV Playhouse was a UK comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a...

, and Mask of Murder (1985).

McKenna relates in her autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, Why Didn't They Tell The Horses?, that when she auditioned for the part of "Christina" in, Flambards

Flambards (TV series)

Flambards was a television series of 13 episodes which was broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1979 and in the United States in 1980. The series was based on the three Flambards novels of English author K. M...

, her most notable role, she had never ridden a horse before. She was so determined to gain the part that she described the horse-obsessed childhood of a friend as her own and got the part. McKenna then had to learn to ride sidesaddle

Sidesaddle

Sidesaddle riding is a form of Equestrianism that uses a type of saddle which allows a rider to sit aside rather than astride a horse, mule or pony. Sitting aside dates back to antiquity and developed in European countries in the Middle Ages as a way for women in skirts to ride a horse in a modest...

 very quickly.

External links

• McKenna's Filmography on the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...