Penelope Wilton

Penelope Alice Wilton, OBE is an English actress. She is known for starring opposite Richard Briers in the BBC sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles playing Homily in The Borrowers and The Return of the Borrowers and for her role as Isobel Crawley in the ITV drama Downton Abbey . She also played the recurring role of Harriet Jones in Doctor Who .

Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, the daughter of Alice Travers, a tap dancer and former actress, and Clifford William Wilton, a businessman. She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers and a cousin of the actor Richard Morant. Her maternal grandparents owned theatres. She and her sisters, Rosemary and Linda, attended the convent school in Newcastle upon Tyne, at which their mother had previously taught. She attended the Drama Centre London.

Source: Wikipedia