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Kate Madikane

Kate has spirit, spark and courage, but these qualities can spell as much trouble as they can success.

Fact title Fact data
Played by:
Perdita Avery
Born:
30 September 1977
Status:
Occupation:
Runs holistic therapy retreat "Spiritual 成人快手"
Lives at:
Blossom Hill Cottage

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Kate has always flouted convention, diving into protest rallies, exotic foreign adventures and stormy relationships with equal fervour.

She gave birth to her daughter at the 1998 Glastonbury Festival who she later left in the care of then very young father Roy Tucker. Finding a base in South Africa, Kate married and they had two children - and Sipho. Kate's occasional visits to Ambridge usually stirred up drama for the Aldridge family.

When Kate returned at the end of 2014 she confessed that her marriage to Lucas had collapsed after an affair - not her first, it had to be said... Thrilled to see more of Phoebe but struggling to keep in touch with Noluthando and Sipho, Kate has made her holistic therapy business, , her main focus. And to everyone's surprise, most of all Brian's, it's become a thriving venture.

More about Kate

I use all my spiritual energy. And I think - is this bringing me joy?
Kate Madikane
  • Likes - Travel, vegan food, spiritual cleanliness
  • Dislikes - Convention, having to pay for things
  • Highs - Marrying Lucas. The effect that his being a black South African had on her conservative family was a bonus.
  • Lows - Death of her mother, her potentially disastrous flirtation with drug culture in 1995. Separating from Lucas and possibly losing access to her children in South Africa.

Immediate family

In South Africa:

  • (Ex-Husband)
  • Sipho Madikane (Son)
  • (Daughter)

Key relationships

  • Jakob Hakansson (Partner)
  • Roy Tucker (Phoebe's father) - They had Phoebe when both were just out of school
  • Lynda Snell (Friend) - an unlikely pairing, but it's always worked (both feel unappreciated by uncreative people)

Perdita on Kate

It's an exciting challenge playing Kate, because it's virtually impossible to understand her attitude or to like her, but I think those are always the most fun parts to play.

She offers no apology, is entirely selfish, easily bored, astonishingly thinks she's an excellent and laid-back mother, is careless and rude and a terrible role model.

She has an uncanny knack of getting everything wrong as she bulldozes through people's lives, But underneath, deep, deep down, I think she's got a good heart and just wants to be accepted.

Perdita Avery

Perdita was born in Gloucester and from an early age showed a huge interest in the arts. Hours would be spent playing the piano with her Father, enjoying classic films with her mother, singing, dancing, pretending to be as grown-up as her older brother and sister, travelling around the world, and trying to work out how to become a real-life Disney princess.

She moved to London to study acting at drama school and was thrilled to graduate with a first class honours degree. She was incredibly fortunate to have two television jobs waiting before completing the course and she hasn't looked back since.

Perdita has enjoyed performing on stage, television, film, radio and voice-overs.

Her West End Theatre credits, which happen to have all been at the Vaudeville Theatre, include: Noel Coward's world premiere of Volcano, Woman in Mind, written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn, and Swimming with Sharks starring Christian Slater.

She has also played Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew at Derby Theatre and performed in Woman in Mind at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

Perdita's TV work includes Father Brown with Mark Williams, Micro Men with Martin Freeman and Alexander Armstrong, Silent Witness, Midsomer Murders Christmas Special, Moving Wallpaper with Ben Miller, Ashes to Ashes, Skins, and My Hero with Hugh Dennis.

Films include London Wall, Air Tribulation and the Oscar nominated Kon Tiki.

Radio plays include Number 10, Exodus169, Armadale and Septimus Greabe, all for 成人快手 Radio 4, directed by Clive Brill. She has also voiced many television commercials, including Schwartz, Fairy and Kuoni.

Perdita was married in 2014 and lives in London with her husband Mark.

Archers highlights

I'm relishing every second of getting to work with these wonderful people
Perdita Avery

Everyone has been so welcoming and it was such a thrill to meet all the people behind those incredibly familiar voices. Although I'm still a newbie, I'm relishing every second of getting to work with these wonderful people and am thrilled to be part of the Aldridge clan.

Other career highlights

Working with the brilliant and lovely Alan Ayckbourn in his revival of Woman in Mind. Only a few years earlier, I'd been studying his plays and couldn't quite believe I found myself in a rehearsal room with him.

Also, the treasured and eclectic bunch of friends you make along the way.

Favourite

  • Actor - Too many to pick just one …. Paul Newman and Grace Kelly for old-school elegance, beauty and glamour. Also, Emma Thompson because she's utterly brilliant and extremely intelligent.
  • Book - East of Eden by John Steinbeck. My Father gave it to me as a birthday present and it is the most extraordinary book I've ever read. I couldn't leave it alone. I loved every single page. It's so gripping, funny, and the characterisation is exquisite. Cathy is the most unnervingly evil character I've ever put on my bedside table.
  • Film - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This film is where it all began for me. I used to watch it non-stop with my mother, sing all the songs and try to do the barn dance. I once heard her saying on the phone when I was very young that I had watched it so many times I was virtually in it. That made me realise they were real people 'acting' and if those real people could be in films … maybe I could.

I'd still like to...

I'd love to act on Broadway. Acting and being in New York… it couldn't get better than that. Unless I could cast all my friends in it, too.