Kelly Diane Adams^[1] (born 16 October 1979) is an English actress. She has played leading roles in a number of British television series: Mickie Hendrie in the BBC One medical drama series Holby City (2004–2006) and Casualty (2005); Emma Kennedy in the BBC One drama series Hustle (2009–2012); Padre Mary Greenstock in the BBC Three comedy drama series Bluestone 42 (2013–2014); Nancy Webb in the ITV period drama series Mr Selfridge (2015); and Michelle Charr in the BBC daytime murder/police drama series London Kills (2020).

Career

Adams was born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire.^[2] A pupil of North Kesteven School in North Hykeham,^[3] Adams trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in Wood Green, London.^[4]

Initially playing Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in a docu-soap about Prince William, she later appeared in Doctors before playing Mickie Hendrie in Holby City from 2004 to 2006. Adams was cast in the role of Mickie alongside fellow series six newcomer Jaye Jacobs, who was cast as staff nurse Donna Jackson. The pair's arrival in the show was heavily publicised and the subject of a documentary entitled Making It at Holby, chronicling their casting process,^[5] which entailed seven weeks of auditions, including group workshops to allow the series producers to gauge candidates' personalities.^[6]

Adams originally auditioned as Donna. However, the casting directors felt that she would be better suited to Mickie, the quieter character^[7] and "mild mannered" counterpart to Donna's "sassy staff nurse".^[8] She and Jacobs were paired together during a three-hour workshop, and the producers detected an "instant spark" between them, leading to their dual casting.^[7] In 2004, her character had a lesbian liaison with Jacobs' character. The scene in which they kissed was edited to half its original length after being deemed too explicit for pre-watershed broadcast.^[9] In the aftermath of the Mickie/Donna storyline, the BBC banned its actresses from appearing in raunchy photo-shoots, after Jacobs and Adams were photographed in intimate poses while dressed in nurse's uniforms for various "lads' mags".^[10] In 2006, her ambitious character left for Newcastle Medical school to study to be a doctor.^[11]

Adams subsequently appeared as the servant Eve in the Robin Hood episode "A Thing or Two About Loyalty".

In 2009, Adams joined the cast of long-running BBC1 drama series Hustle for its fifth season, playing the role of Emma Kennedy, a new member of Mickey Bricks' crew of con artists. She continued in the role of Emma for three further seasons of the drama. In an episode of Series 6, Adams plays the role of Kylie Minogue as a parody of Adams' resemblance to the Australian singer. In real life, Adams has been mistaken for Minogue.^[12]

She had a small role in the 2009 biographical film Bronson, about the prisoner Charles Bronson,^[13] and appeared in the British science fiction thriller Beacon77 in 2009^[14][15] and as Wendy in My Last Five Girlfriends in 2010.^[16]

Adams appeared in the second series of Death in Paradise, shown on the BBC in early 2013.^[17] She then starred as Padre Mary Greenstock in the BBC Three comedy Bluestone 42 for its first two series.^[18][19]

In 2015 she played Nancy Webb in the third instalment of the ITV period drama series Mr Selfridge,^[20] and in 2020 Michelle Charr in the second series of the BBC daytime murder/police drama series London Kills.^[21]

Personal life

Adams married fashion photographer Chris Kennedy in 2011.^[22]

Filmography

Films

Television

Theatre