Those of us familiar with the output from the BBC’s costume drama department, and in particular Andrew Davies’ accomplished adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House will already be well acquainted with the dimple-cheeked lovely, Carey Mulligan who played the wide-eyed innocent, Ada Clare. 

This performance followed a role as the wilful Kitty Bennet in Joe Wright’s star-studded feature film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.   Fast forward four years and we see the London-born actress being tipped as an Oscar hopeful following her lead performance in An Education, the film based on a semi-autobiographical account of the life of journalist, Lynn Barber which has created a huge buzz at the BFI London Film Festival this week. 

Following the film’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival both Variety and Entertainment Weekly called her ‘the breakout star of 2009’; she also starred alongside Susan Sarandon in debut director Shana Feste’s The Greatest.  So, for an actress who received three rejections from drama school, but is now being compared to Audrey Hepburn it seems like Carey Mulligan is on her way to conquering critics and audiences alike on both sides of the Atlantic.  She is set to co-star with her latest squeeze, Shia LeBeouf, when they appear with Michael Douglas in Oliver Stone’s follow up to his 80s classic, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. 

Is it a case of move over Kate and Keira, there’s a new kid on the block?  We’ll just have to watch this space...

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