Laura Main to Join Jane Asher in BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT UK Tour

Laura Main (BBC Call the Midwife) will join as The Dresser in the new UK tour of By Royal Appointment, following Samantha Womack withdrawing from the production due to personal reasons. This is the debut play of Daisy Goodwin, creator of hit ITV historical drama Victoria – directed by Anthony Banks.

Laura joins Jane Asher as The Queen, David Robb as The Designer and Matthew Cottle as The Milliner, Laura Matthews as The Curator with Jeremy Drakes as Footman and understudy for The Designer and The Millner and Fiona Tong as Footman and understudy for The Queen, her Dresser and The Curator. The play explores The Queen and her Dresser's relationship and how the pair created the public image of the world's longest reigning monarch.

By Royal Appointment is a co-production with The Arts Theatre Cambridge and will open there on 24 September running until 3 October before touring to Nottingham Theatre Royal (5 – 10 October), Chelmsford Theatre (19 – 24 October), York Theatre Royal (10 – 14 November), His Majesty's Theatre Aberdeen (12 – 16 January 2027), Chichester Festival Theatre (18 – 23 January), Edinburgh Kings Theatre (25 – 30 January) and Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (2 – 6 February).

The late Queen Elizabeth II was famous for her discretion. She never said anything in public that could ruffle the lightest of feathers. But she had one way of expressing what she really thought – through her wardrobe. 

By Royal Appointment is a funny, poignant and celebratory new play about the kind of power that only a Queen can wield – she charms the world through coats and admonishes her family through a carefully chosen hat. But the Queen herself is uninterested in fashion, her look is managed by her Designer, her Milliner and most powerful of all, her Dresser who was a working-class girl who goes from advising the Queen on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. But the Dresser, like all royal favourites is living on borrowed time.

By Royal Appointment is a behind the scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.

The new tour of By Royal Appointment is written by Daisy Goodwin, directed by Anthony Banks, designed by Jonathan Fensom, with lighting design by Richard Howell, sound design by Sarah Weltman and composition by Ben Ringham.

Biographies

By Royal Appointment was Daisy Goodwin's debut play. Her most recent production of Victoria: A Queen Unbound was produced at Watermill Theatre in April 2026. For television, her writing credits include ITV historical drama series Victoria. Her novels include The Last Duchess, The Fortune Hunter, The American Heiress, Victoria and Diva, she has curated eight poetry anthologies. Also, as a producer, her many credits include Grand Designs and Escape to the Country. 

Jane Asher plays The Queen. Her stage credits include: Twelfth Night, The Circle (Orange Tree Theatre), A Song At Twilight, Moon Tiger (Theatre Royal Bath), An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre), Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre), Pride and Prejudice (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Charley's Aunt (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Importance of Being Earnest, Farewell to the Theatre, Bedroom Farce (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Reluctant Debutant (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre), Before the Party (Queen's Theatre), Blythe Spirit, Henceforward, House/Garden (Vaudeville Theatre), Festen (Almeida Theatre), Look Back In Anger (Royal Court Theatre, Criterion Theatre), Making It Better (Hampstead Theatre, Criterion Theatre), Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet, The Happiest Days of Your Life … (Bristol Old Vic, US tour), Old Flames (Bristol Old Vic), Peter Pan (Shaftesbury Theatre), Strawberry Fields, The School for Scandal, To Those Born Later (National Theatre), The Philanthropist (Royal Court Theatre, Mayfair Theatre, Broadway), The Shallow End, The Worlds Biggest Diamond, Treats (Royal Court Theatre), and Things We Do For Love (Gielgud Theatre). Her film credits include A Family Affair, Splinter, Burn Burn Burn, I Give It A Year, Alfie, Closing Numbers, Death at a Funeral, Deep End, Dream Child, Henry VIII and His Six Wives, Paris by Night, Runners, and for television, Crossing Lines, Pompidou, Eve, Stella, The Old Guys, Poirot: 3 Act Tragedy, The Palace, A for Andromeda, Crossroads, Miss Marple, The Mistress, Brideshead Revisited and The Mill on the Floss.

Laura Main plays The Dresser. She has appeared in all fifteen series of Call the Midwife, initially playing Sister Bernadette before giving up her wimple to marry and become known as Nurse Shelagh Turner. Other TV credits include: The Mill; Murder City; Father Brown; Doctors; Holby City; Monarch of the Glen; The Forsyte Saga and the voice of Pak Choi in the animated series, Roots and Fruits, for CBeebies. Her theatre credits include: Sleeping Beauty (Sunderland Empire and Aylesbury Waterside Theatre); One Last Push (Salisbury Playhouse); Steel Magnolias (UK Tour); Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella (His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen); Shrek the Musical (UK tour); Company (Southwark Playhouse); State Fair (Trafalgar Studios); On the Island of Aars (Edinburgh & London Pleasance); Tea and Sympathy  (Finborough); Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Alice in Wonderland (Royal Shakespeare Company). Laura recently had the honour of singing at VJ Day at The National Memorial Arboretum for BBC One's 80th Anniversary commemoration. She also sung last year at BBC Scotland's Burns Night. 

 David Robb plays The Designer. His theatre credits include Private Lives, Armstrong's Last Goodnight (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), The Taming of The Shrew, The Beggar's Opera,  The Promise (Chichester Festival Theatre), She Stoops to Conquer, An Audience Called Edouard (Greenwich Theatre), Cowardy Custard (Mermaid Theatre), Betsi (Haymarket Theatre), King Lear (Almeida Theatre), Half the Picture (Tricycle Theatre), An Ideal Husband (The Old Vic), The Haunting, Single Spies (UK Tour), The Audience (Apollo Theatre), and Grenfell: Value Engineering (Tabernacle Theatre, Birmingham Rep). His television credits include, I Claudius, The Winslow Boy, Wuthering Heights, Le Morte D'Arthur, Fanny by Gaslight, First Among Equals, Half The Picture, Wings, up The Garden Path, Strathblair, Highlander, Taggart, Monarch of the Glen, Ivanhoe, The Flame Trees of Thika, Princess Stallion, The Crow Road, Wolf Hall as series regular Thomas Boleyn, and Downton Abbey as series regular Dr Clarkson. His film credits include The Four Feathers, Regeneration, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Young Victoria, Sacrifice, From Time to Time, All Those Small Things, and Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Matthew Cottle plays The Milliner. His theatre credits include Hamlet, Our Country's Good, A Small Family Business, The Habit of Art (National Theatre), A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (Alexandra Palace, Birmingham Rep), Party Games! (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre), Mrs Warren's Profession (Theatre Royal Bath), Woman in Mind, The Deep Blue Sea, The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre), Habeas Corpus, Communicating Doors (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales Theatre), Rough Crossing (UK tour), Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse), How the Other Half Loves (Theatre Royal Haymarket), and Neighbourhood Watch (New York). His television credits include Down Cemetery Road, The Responder, Alice & Jack, Life After Life, Bridgerton, Outlander, Defending the Guilty, Endeavour, Traitors, The Windsors, The Dresser, Man Down, and Game On as series regular Martin Henson and for film, By the Throat, The Critic, Seize Them! The Personal History of David Copperfield, Bright Young Things, and Chaplin.

Laura Matthews as The Curator. Her theatre credits includes: Not in the Mood for Quiche Anymore (Barons Court Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Full Monty (Mark Goucher Productions/No 1 UK Tour), Richard II (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Girl on the Train (The English Theatre Frankfurt), The Scarlet Pimpernel (Theatre Royal Bath), A Brief History Of Women (World Premiere in 59E59 Theater New York), Taking Steps (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Henceforward (Stephen Joseph Theatre & UK Tour), No Knowing (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Earnest and The Pale Moon (Les Enfants Terribles at Edinburgh Festival, UK Tour and Soho Theatre), Dick Whittington and His Cat (Salisbury Playhouse), The Merchant of Venice (GB Theatre UK Tour), One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre), We're All In It Together (Theatre503), London Assurance (National Theatre), Ferment: Select A Quest (Bristol Old Vic), Noises Off! (Ambassadors Theatre Group/No 1 UK Tour). Her television credits include: Babies (Snowed-In Productions for BBC), Call The Midwife (Neal Street Productions for BBC), Eastenders (BBC), Doctors (BBC). Her film credits includes: Pride (Proud Films). Radio work includes: The Shape Of The Table, Falco: Poseidon's Gold (both for BBC Radio). Voiceover work includes: Aardman Animations (Aardman). Laura trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

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