The Oxford School of Drama

Claire Foy plays Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s eagerly awaited series The Crown

Claire Foy

Claire’s face has hardly been out of the media over the last few weeks as the release date for Netflix’s most expensive production approaches. The 10-part series will start on 4th November, and is rumoured to have cost £100 million. Written by Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry it chronicles the lives of the Windsors from 1947 – 1956.

A review in The Telegraph headlined “The Crown: Netflix’s astonishing royal gamble pays off” gives the first two episodes five stars and says of Claire: “It’s a performance that is every bit as convincing as Helen Mirren’s Oscar-winning turn in The Queen.”

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Seamus Allen

Seamus trained in his hometown, Dublin at the Conservatory of Music and Drama. After graduating he toured nationally with some of Ireland’s premier children’s theatre companies, as well as developing and performing clown performances for Barrabbas, and magic shows for Cahoots N.I. 

Since moving to the UK Seamus has appeared in The Tempest, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth and Robin Hood (Creation Theatre Company), Quest (Folklore Presents) The Disappearance (The Sticking Place),and Where’s My Desi Soulmate? (Rifco Arts). Tv work includes Bear Behaving Badly (Thames Valley).  Seamus is also a skilled improviser, training with Ken Campbell’s School of Night and core cast in the annual London 50 hour Improvathons and performs with “Austentatious, The improvised Jane Austen Novel”.  

Seamus was the director of the Young Company at the Watermill theatre in Newbury. He established Readings only Improvisation comedy club, “What’s the Game?! Improv”, hosting shows as well as coaching professional performers.  Seamus was Head of acting at Read college, a course which he wrote and which became one of the most successful Foundation courses for getting students into the top acting degree programmes in the UK.  Most recently he has been Head of Year at Drama Studio London and gained an MSc in Performance Psychology focusing on excellence in actor training.

Seamus is Head of Foundation and teaches on the Foundation Courses