Theresa Roche’s career portfolio includes multiple roles as an actress, singer, dancer, presenter and costumed tour guide. After completing a history degree, she trained as an actress and then as a solicitor. But she says it is the performing arts that have always been her guiding star.
In theatre Theresa’s roles include the Queen in Snow White, Princess Thaisa in Pericles and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights. Her film work includes a specialist line in evil characters in horror movies, such as The House of Screaming Death (2015) and Morgana Le Fay in the 2011 Merlin’s Myth documentary. She has also appeared in on-line commercials. Her ballroom and Latin dancing has been featured on the BBC and Sky TV national news and she was a Tudor wedding dancer in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). Theresa also plays characters in comedy dining shows, playing Sybil in Fawlty Towers and in multi-roles playing Edith, Helga and Michelle in ’Allo ’Allo. In 2010 she wrote a play that was performed in two London theatres.
Theresa debuted on stage as a dancer aged four and has lived in Bristol for over 25 years. She is a familiar face in Bath, where her theatrical persona has an appropriately Regency stamp in her work as a costumed Jane Austen Tour Guide for Bath-based ECT Travel. She is also a costumed host at The Gainsborough Bath Spa hotel’s History & Heritage afternoon teas where guests can ask questions about the history of Bath and learn about the language of the fan, how ladies transmitted their secret messages across the ballrooms – these messages ranged from “desirous of acquaintance” and “meet me outside” to “I love you”. This for Theresa offers the perfect pairing of her two big loves: history and Jane Austen. “I adore Jane Austen and always have done,” she declares, and her knowledge both of the writer’s life and books and of the period is extensive, allowing her to capture her Regency characters in full colour. The impact is enhanced further by Theresa’s collection of Regency-style outfits – the one she is wearing here was made for a programme called The Iron Duke about the Duke of Wellington and is a replica of the Empress Josephine’s court gown.
The 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, 2025, will see Theresa at her busiest as she appears in Regency costume at events planned throughout the year. This includes experiences organised by ECT Travel and The Gainsborough Bath Spa, where Theresa will be hosting visits within Bath to the places where Jane lived, as well as other locations with Austen associations such as Lacock village, where the 1995 Pride and Prejudice was filmed, and Chawton Cottage in Hampshire.
Theresa debuted on stage as a dancer aged 4 and has lived in Bristol for over 25 years.
thegainsboroughbathspa.co.uk ecttravel.com
Main photograph taken at The Gainsborough Bath Spa by Joe Short, an award-winning photographer based in Bath.
joeshort.com