Creator / Francesca Gonshaw

If she's going to speak French to you, make sure to bring a handkerchief...

"I wanted to be a serious actress. Now I seem to be known only as a bawdy waitress wearing stockings and suspenders."

Francesca Gonshaw, (25 November 1959), is a British actress best known for playing Maria Recamier in 'Allo 'Allo!.

In 1982, she was cast as the tiny but lusty Maria in 'Allo 'Allo!, a waitress at Café René. She played the role for the first three series, but did not return for the fourth or any onward, complaining that she felt she had been Typecast by her time on the show. She instead took the role of Amanda Parker in Howards' Way, a drama.

She also played Arsinoe in The Cleopatras, a drama series about ancient Rome. From 1984 to 1985, she played Lisa Walters in Crossroads, with a performance that was slated by some critics who compared her line delivery to someone reading from an optician's chart.

While Gonshaw no longer acts, she has since found work as a publishing executive and a curator.

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Works on TV Tropes she appeared in:

Films

• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) — Young Girl in Mire
• Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) — Marie

Series

• 'Allo 'Allo!, 21 episodes (1982-87) — Maria Recamier
• The Cleopatras, 2 episodes^{show list}"51 BC", "35 BC" (1983) — Arsinoe
• Crossroads, unknown amount of episodes (1984-85) — Lisa Walters
• Howards' Way, 12 episodes (1987) — Amanda Howard
• She-Wolf of London, episode "Nice Girls Don't" (1990) — Judith

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