A schoolgirl from Swanage in Dorset, with a famous family acting connection, is stepping into the spotlight herself in a play by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, fresh from its West End run.
Thirteen year old Emmeline, relative of Swanage born actor Robert Brown – M in the James Bond films – has landed her debut big stage role in The Unfriend, which opens at the Bournemouth Little Theatre in Dorset on Tuesday 21st October 2025.
Comedian Lee Mack in the 2024 West End run of The Unfriend
Playing the surly teenage daughter
Emmeline is part of the cast bringing Steven Moffat’s comedy to life, in which an overly polite British couple befriends a loud American widow, Elsa, while on holiday and somehow ends up with her as a houseguest – even though an online search suggests she may be a murderer.
The Unfriend played at West End theatres through 2023 and 2024, directed by Sherlock star Mark Gatiss and starring Lee Mack from Not Going Out. It has just been made available for amateur groups to stage.
Emmeline plays Rosie, the surly teenage daughter at odds with her annoying younger brother, and is loving rehearsals for the show, which might just lead to greater things.
Her real life father and mother John and Lucy say that they even partly chose her name knowing that it may some day be shortened to Em – as in the most famous role of her second cousin Robert Brown, who played MI6 boss M opposite Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.
Emmeline has been performing since primary school and has been a regular at the Julie Adams Stage School where she has compered the school’s summer and Christmas shows.
Emmeline with father John and mother Lucy, looking forward to her big stage debut
“I got a better role and a dramatic death!”
Emmeline said:
“My primary school always did a main production, but only Year Six pupils could go for the main character – in my year it was the Wizard of Oz and I auditioned for both Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West.
“Then I thought about it and realised that if I was the witch I would have a far better costume, much more interesting lines and also a dramatic death.
“So I told them that the other girl could have the part of Dorothy and I got the better role, with two singing solos, and a very dramatic death indeed!
“I had these big green boots on as well, and had a box to stand on, so I was way taller than all the others and someone in the audience mistook me for a teacher!
“Before I auditioned for The Unfriend I had tried out for two other plays at the Bournemouth Little Theatre, they were for 20 year olds and I knew I wasn’t going to get the parts, but it was more for the experience of doing the audition.”
Emmeline, here in character as Doctor What, is about to star in a show written by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat
“I’m really enjoying the experience”
Emmeline added:
“It was a bit sad because the first one I did for The Murder Room for the part of a girl who had just come back from university, but just before we started the director asked me how old I was.
“I was so upset, I’d wanted them to cast me in the role and then asked how old I was, then it would be less likely they’d recast the character – but I had to own up to being 11 at that point and was told I was too young as there were adult themes in the script.
“My character in The Unfriend, Rosie, is 15 or 16, and after the audition I thought I might have a good chance of getting the role, but there were older actors than me going for it and so it was really lovely when I was told that it was mine!
“Rehearsals started in September, three evenings a week and have been quite intense as I have to do my homework first, but I’m really enjoying the experience and come back after the rehearsals really happy and not tired at all.
“I like the play a lot, it’s very funny and the situations are interesting. I have had to work on voice projection, but for some of the scenes I am really angry, so it’s easy to be loud!”
Family roots in Swanage – brothers Walter, Charles and Sydney Brown were quarrymen, fishermen and lifeboat men
Family roots in Swanage
Emmeline’s family roots are in Swanage, where her great great grandfather Walter Brown worked as one of the town’s last quarrymen.
His brother Charles Brown was a fisherman and lifeboat coxswain, whose son Robert Charles Brown became the famous Swanage lifeboat coxswain who was decorated for bravery and after whom the town’s lifeboat was later named.
Robert Charles’s son was Robert Brown, the actor who would go on to play M in the James Bond films from 1983 to 1989, appearing opposite Roger Moore in Octopussy and A View To A Kill, and Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill.
Before that, he had a starring role in the 1950s TV series Ivanhoe, again opposite Roger Moore, and was the galley master in Ben-Hur, which starred Charlton Heston.
Robert Brown as head of MI6 M, pictured with James Bond Timothy Dalton
“Robert wasn’t quite handsome enough”
Emmeline’s father John said:
“Robert Brown went off to Hollywood and did well, but the rest of the family were quarrymen and fishermen, and they didn’t make a fuss about it.
“My first memory of Robert was when I was a kid, when was on television in a series with as the sidekick, Gurth, to Roger Moore’s Ivanhoe.
“It was in the days of tiny black and white televisions and I remember mum occasionally saying that my cousin was in the programme, in a scruffy outfit riding around on a horse, but in those days it didn’t mean very much.
“Robert’s problem was that he wasn’t quite handsome enough – he was probably as good an actor as his friend Roger Moore, but Roger had the looks.
“Roger was The Saint, he was Ivanhoe and James Bond, all the glamorous roles, whereas Robert was a fine actor but it was only when he could play older, more crusty characters that he came into his own.”
Robert Brown, pictured here in Ben-Hur (left), was born, raised and died in Swanage
“Set off to Hollywood on an acting career”
John added:
“The whole family was very working class and so it was a very individualist decision for Robert to set off to Hollywood on an acting career.
“They were all fishermen or quarrymen and weren’t big fans of the cinema, there wasn’t even any buzz in the family even when he was playing M in the James Bond films.
“The Robert Brown lifeboat in Swanage was named after his father, Robert Charles Brown, and it was there for many years although it has now been replaced.
“Robert was one of the most famous coxwains Swanage had and received honours for brave rescues.
“Traditionally the Brown family were on the lifeboats, but Emmeline’s great great grandfather Walter wasn’t allowed to join because he had a foot deformity and only the strongest were allowed on the lifeboats.
“Walter went into quarrying instead and was one of the last to work underground in Swanage.”
Emmeline as Rosie in rehearsals for The Unfriend at the Bournemouth Little Theatre
Further information
- See the theatre where Emmeline will make her public debut
