English actress Lucy Boynton has been in a surprising number of frock flicks given her relatively young age! I hadn’t really connected the dots on her, but once I looked into her resume, I saw she’s been acting in historical films and TV series since she was a kid. She’s got another production coming up set in the 1950s, so let’s see where she came from!
Young Beatrix in Miss Potter (2006)
The Beatrix Potter biopic.
Posy Fossil in Ballet Shoes (2007)
A TV movie adaptation of the Noel Streatfield children’s book set in the 1930s.
Margaret Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility (2008)
She plays the youngest sister of Elinor and Marianne in the most recent TV adaptation of the Jane Austen classic.
Esther Hagadorn in Copperhead (2013)
“An Upstate New York family is torn apart during the American Civil War” per IMDB.
Petra Briers in Endeavour (2012-23)
A show about a British police constable set in the 1960s-70s.
Sister Lucia in Borgia (2011-14)
Boynton was in one episode of the bad Borgias TV show.
Angelica Bell in Life in Squares (2015)
The real Bell was a writer and painter; this was a TV miniseries about the Bloomsbury Group.
Polly in I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
A gothic supernatural horror film set in the present and 1812; Boynton plays a woman who is murdered in 1812.
Claire Douglas in Rebel in the Rye (2017)
A biopic about author J.D. Salinger.
Countess Elena Andrenyi in Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
“Lucy Boynton plays the reclusive Countess Elena Andrenyi, who is almost always hiding in her car and wearing lounging wear,” as I wrote in my review of the recent feature film adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie mystery.
Andrea in Apostle (2018)
A gothic folk horror film set in 1905 Wales.
Jean Courtney in The Ipcress File (2022)
A spy thriller TV series that’s an adaptation of a book.
Frankie Derwent in Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (2022)
Another Agatha Christie adaptation.
Marie Antoinette in Chevalier (2022)
A feature film biopic of 18th-century composer, violinist, and fencer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
Lea Marquis in The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
A mystery thriller set in 1830.
Ruth Ellis in A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (2025)
A TV movie about the last woman to be hanged in Britain, which took place in 1955.
What’s your favorite Lucy Boynton period production?
Good grief, this lady seems to have been tailor made for Frock Flocks (Complete with period appropriate history of Child Labour).😉
Incidentally, thank you for the reminder to tune in to the RUTH ELLIS STORY tonight: I’ll do my best to come back with a non-spoiler summary after the episode.
Also, if anyone fancies looking over a broad selection of 1960s costumery (From just about every section of the social and cultural spectrum) then ENDEAVOUR is definitely the place to do it, especially if you enjoy the mystery/crime drama genre.
Yes, all the sisters are adopted and come from different families in Ballet Shoes.
Love that two of my favorite current Frock Flick actresses (Lucy and Anya Taylor-Joy) had early appearances in the same Endeavour episode (Anya’s the waifish blonde in the background of the screenshot of Lucy).
Past your cutoff point but Sing Street is another great period flick that Lucy did; she rocks the giant 1980s hair as well as she does 50s curls or 1830s ringlets.
I have seen quite a few of these… but didn’t realise Boynton was in so many things!
Thanks for the reminder on the Ruth Ellis story, I knew it was coming but not when – got it on my watchlist now. And also the Ipcress File – looks fabulous with her very Givenchy-inspired wardrobe, at least in these photos here.
I second @ED regarding Endeavour. It’s so well made both in terms of the mysteries, the acting as well as the costumes and overall design. Highly recommended!
She also played Mary Austin in Bohemian Rhapsody. (That must be past your cutoff point.)
She is one of those people who looks unrecognizable as a brunette (her natural hair color, I presume) and a blonde. I’ve seen several of her projects. Both Miss Potter and Life in Squares bored me to tears, though I don’t fault this actress for that. I thought she was very good in Ballet Shoes. I don’t remember her particular episode of Endeavour, but as others have said in their comments, I agree that is a very good show and well worth watching.
My favorite show is “Sense and Sensibility”. Very nice typical gloves and hat on the gent at horseback.
“The Pale Blue Eye” was somehow nice but just not my sort of movie – however it was not her fault.
Having watched CRUEL LOVE: THE RUTH ELLIS STORY episode one, I can say that it has a fair amount of period glam, but that this is rather secondary to strong overtones that put me in mind of Film Noir.
Interesting viewing, but exactly as much fun as you’d expect a dramatisation of the events leading to a woman being hanged for shooting her lover to death would be.