“Ted Lasso” started with club owner, Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) wanting to burn it all down to spite her ex-husband, but after four seasons, AFC Richmond would be in ruins without her. Plus, the titular coach showed her that there’s more to life than revenge, as she eventually found the space to grow just as much as the soccer club. It’s one of the best TV shows streaming on Apple TV, and for good reason.
Waddingham delivers one of the best performances in the show as Rebecca, easily finding unique dynamics and singular chemistry with almost every character. She switches pace, tone, and mood depending on who’s in the room — while also being bitingly funny. However, despite being thrust onto the pitch for “Ted Lasso,” Waddingham has been in numerous other TV shows which showcase the true range of her acting abilities. From twisted villains to caring mothers, she’s delivered some stunning performances over the years.
Benidorm
Hannah Waddingham collected numerous British TV roles early on in her career, but it wasn’t until “Benidorm” that she really broke out across the pond. She joined the ITV sitcom for Season 6 as Tonya Dyke, the very brash wife of Clive (Perry Benson) who has no issue complaining about their holiday and accusing him of cheating on her. She made an unforgettable splash by strutting around the titular resort in high heels and a bikini, but her true impact was in the comedic timing that Waddingham masterfully delivered.
Whether it was speaking to her teenage children like toddlers in a sing-song voice, or lambasting the state of the Wi-Fi-less hotel room, Waddingham was hilarious. Playing Dyke proved her versatility as an actor, and she became an instant classic character in a show packed with colorfully ridiculous holidaymakers. While there wasn’t huge amounts of dramatic depth to the work, it was clear that Waddingham had fun commanding the screen in “Benidorm,” and it definitely helped lead to bigger things for the star.
12 Monkeys
While Hannah Waddingham’s steely performance in “Game of Thrones” stole the spotlight against Lena Headey (more on that later), she gets a little more meat to work with as the equally villainous Magdalena in the “12 Monkeys” TV show. The Syfy series follows a group of time travelers who try to stop a group called the Army of the 12 Monkeys from unleashing a deadly pandemic. It was adapted from the mind-bending Terry Gilliam movie of the same name from 1995, but it leans in its own direction rather than the whacky bleakness of the Bruce Willis thriller.
Waddingham plays one of the senior members of the terrorist group called Magdalena, and she’s incredibly intimidating during her role in Season 3. Magdalena is devoted to the cause of protecting the “Witness” — the unknown leader of the group. Because of all the alternate timelines and time traveling, the show makes it very clear Magdalena has killed scores of people in an effort to maintain the version of reality where the Witness is born and shaped by the group.
Magdalena is intensely cold as a result of her dedication to the cause, and Waddingham’s performance is absolutely chilling. The prime example is how she frequently travels back in time to warn her past self of any danger to the Witness, before willingly setting herself on fire to take her own life and keep the timeline stable. It’s no wonder Magdalena is so cold and calculating — she’s had to watch her future self burn to death on numerous occasions.
Ride or Die
“Ride or Die” could’ve been a straightforward buddy comedy star vehicle on Prime Video, but instead it’s a bombastic ode to friendship, fate, and found family. It hinges on the chemistry between Hannah Waddingham as secret assassin Judith Burton and Octa
The comedic action sends the pair into a spiral when Claybourne accidentally discovers that her pal kills people for a living. The show gets a lot of runway out of action-based gags and Burton being a badass, but it also spends the time making the audience care about her friendship with Claybourne.
The only reason “Ride or Die” isn’t higher up the list is that it feels like the middle ground of Waddingham’s career so far: Funny, cool, and occasionally badass. She does come across like Rebecca Welton in “Ted Lasso” if she knew how to ride a motorbike and shoot people (which quite frankly wouldn’t be surprising given the ferocity of the AFC Richmond owner). Still, it’s incredibly fun watching Waddingham and Spencer go on a globetrotting adventure with some genuine soul searching scattered in among the quips and fight scenes.
Sex Education
The drama and comedy in “Sex Education” might focus on the cohort of awkward British teenagers, but some of the adults do add some significant depth at times — like Hannah Waddingham’s character, Sofia Marchetti. It’s a great performance because it’s a little thorny. She’s the mother of Jackson Marchetti, an elite swimmer at Moordale School who could likely go on to be an Olympian competitor. But because of his talent, his mother is incredibly strict with his life because she just wants what’s best for him.
The training schedule that she’s created means he has almost no spare time — it starts to weigh him down, and it affects all aspects of his life. Not only that, but it also causes a divide between Sofia and her wife, Roz (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Waddingham does great work opposite her costars as the family squabbles to figure out what they all actually want, and not what they think they have to do. It’s a complicated role, and while Sofia could’ve easily have been painted almost as a villain, both Waddingham’s nuanced performance and the writing of the show make sure to explain that real life is far too messy to paint things as black and white.
Game of Thrones
Hannah Waddingham might be better known for the likes of “Ted Lasso” and “Ride or Die” now, but she broke out internationally by starring in one of the best HBO original series of all time: “Game of Thrones.” Waddingham played Septa Unella, or as she’s more popularly known — the Shame Nun. It’s one of her most famous roles because she plays such an awful villain who briefly outshines Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) as a terrifying antagonist.
Not only is she charged with humiliating Cersei in the streets of King’s Landing, but she also psychologically tortures her in a grimy dungeon. Considering Unella doesn’t have the biggest role in the series, it’s impressive how much of an impact Waddingham made on audiences. “Shame!” became an instant meme.
“Game of Thrones” had audiences gripped for eight years, largely to see how characters like Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) might end up on the Iron Throne. But the show was also defined by the bleakness of its villains, and Unella was quietly one of the best.
