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Profile: Cush Jumbo

Cush Jumbo

BBC Radio 4 - Profile, Cush Jumbo

British star of The Good Wife taking on the role of Hamlet. With Mark Coles.

Heralded as ‘a new kind of Hamlet’, The Good Wife star is the first woman of colour to play the troubled prince in a major production on a British stage. With Mark Coles.

British actress Cush Jumbo is best known for her starring role in US TV dramas The Good Wife and spin-off The Good Fight. Now she’s aiming to set the London theatre scene alight, playing ‘a new kind of Hamlet’ at the Young Vic. Only a handful of women have ever taken on the role before, and Jumbo is the first woman of colour to play the troubled Danish prince in a major production in Britain. 

It hasn’t been plain sailing for Cush Jumbo, who worked a long list of jobs – including door to door sales and waitressing in a strip bar – to support herself as an aspiring actress, and came close to quitting altogether. But, as Mark Coles hears, she wrote her way out of the doldrums and became a star on both sides of the Atlantic.

Celebrity mates Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) and Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) help tell her story, and spill some great anecdotes along the way. 

Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Researchers: Zoe Gelber, Soila Apparicio, Bethan Head
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Penny Murphy
Mix: Neil Churchill

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