Matilda Ziegler

This poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Matilda Ziegler" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

Matilda Ziegler (born 23 July 1964)^[1] is an English actress, best known for her roles as Donna Ludlow in EastEnders, Irma Gobb in Mr. Bean, and Pearl Pratt in Lark Rise to Candleford.

Television and film career

Ziegler's first screen role was in her early twenties, during 1987–89; she appeared in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders, playing Donna Ludlow, the illegitimate daughter of series regular Kathy Beale. Donna contended with prostitution, an attempted gang rape, heroin addiction and finally suicide (dying of a heroin overdose). The final death scenes of Ziegler's character, who had choked to death on her own vomit, have been hailed as one of the most powerful anti-drug images ever screened on the programme.^[2] She left EastEnders in April 1989.

In the early 1990s, Ziegler starred in the ITV comedy Mr. Bean, where she played multiple characters, especially a three-episode stint as Irma Gobb, the title character's long-suffering girlfriend. She reprised her role as Gobb, voicing her in Mr. Bean: The Animated Series, from 2002 to 2004, and in the revived series from 2015 to 2019.

Other television credits include: Lark Rise to Candleford (2008–2010) in which she played the part of Pearl Pratt, in the BBC adaptation of Flora Thompson's novel; Harbour Lights (1999); Where the Heart Is (2000); Holby City (2003); An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1998); The Bill (2003), and Home, alongside Anthony Sher in an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel.

Ziegler played Ruth, wife of car salesman Toni, in the BBC sitcom