Patience cast: where you have seen Channel 4 actors before - cast explained

Channel 4’s excellent new crime drama Patience features plenty of familiar faces. Set in the beautiful city of York - it is not only the scenery that catches the eye.

Audiences may find themselves recognising plenty of the actors featured in the cast. But may be unable to place quite where they know them from.

Patience is a British adaptation of the French show Astrid et Raphaëlle (also known as Astrid: Murder in Paris) - and follows an autistic woman with a love of puzzles that comes to help the police investigate cases. It is airing weekly on Channel 4, but the whole box set is available on demand as well.

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Patience’s cast - and where you’ve seen them before

The main cast of the new Channel 4 drama features plenty of familiar faces - even if you can’t quite place where you know them from. It includes a prominent actor from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

Ella May Purvis - Patience Evans

The actor who plays the titular character in Patience is one you might have seen elsewhere. She played Bonnie in 19 episodes of A Kind of Spark from 2023 to 2024 - while she has also appeared in Netflix’s Heartstopper.

Ella is also set to appear in the upcoming 2025 reboot of Bergerac later this year. She will play a character called Sophie Armstrong and the show will air on U&Drama - with a date to be confirmed.

Laura Fraser - DI Bea Metcalf

The other half of the main duo, Laura Fraser plays DI Bea Metcalf in the Channel 4 drama. You may have found yourself thinking ‘why does she look familiar’ - I certainly did.

And the reason for that is: she played Lydia Rodarte-Quayle in the final season of Breaking Bad. She also returned to the role for its prequel series Better Call Saul.

You may also recognise her as Door in the 1990s BBC2 series Nowhere - while she was also Kate in the early 2000s film A Knight’s Tale. Her other prominent roles include Cat MacKenzie in BBC Three’s Lip Service.

Nathan Welsh - DS Jake Hunter

Nathan Welsh plays one of the police officers in the Channel 4 drama Patience. He has had roles in other TV shows in recent years including Culprits - originally on Disney Plus but now also on ITVX.

He also played Mr Graham in the BBC comedy series Am I Being Unreasonable? in 2022. Nathan was also in Trust Me with Jodie Whittaker, playing Sam Kelly in the first season in 2017.

Tom Lewis - Elliot Scott

You may recognise Tom Lewis from his role as Thomas Sowden in Gentleman Jack on the BBC. He was also in a couple episodes of A Discovery of Witches on Sky, playing the character of Peckham in 2021.

Mark Benton - Calvin Baxter

The boss of DI Metcalf is played by a familiar face in Patience. You may recognise Mark Benton from his roles in Barbara in the early 00s or from playing Daniel "Chalky" Chalk in Waterloo Road from 2011 to 2014.

Since 2018, he has also starred as the leading role of Frank Hathaway in Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators on the BBC. In late 2024 he also played Mam in the BBC Three sitcom Smoggie Queens - which is 100% worth a watch.

Liza Sadovy - Dr. Loretta Parsons

Viewers may recognise Liza from appearing in shows like Extras, Midsomer Murders, Babylon, The Honourable Woman, Doctors, EastEnders, Emma, A Small Light and Vera.

Who is in the supporting cast of Patience?

It is not only the main cast that makes up the faces of Channel 4’s Patience drama. There are plenty of supporting roles also involved in the show.

These are the actors in the support cast and who they play in Patience. They appear in all six episodes, unless otherwise stated:

• Ali Ariane - Will Akbari
• Maxwell Whitelock - Alfie Metcalf-Haynes (five episodes)
• Jamie Maclachlan - George Evans (five episodes)
• Dieuwke de Mooij - Baxter's PA (Assistant Detective) (five episodes)
• Ava Cook - young Patience (four episodes)
• Shireen Farkhoy - Miss Page (three episodes)
• Joana Borja - Yemaya Vasquez (two episodes)
• Adrian Rawlins - Douglas Gilmour (one episode)
• Lotte Lauren - Mathilde Evans (one episode)
• Oona Van Harneveldt - toddler Patience (one episode)
• Nathan Graham - young man at bus stop (one episode)
• Rekha John-Cheriyan - Prisha Chopra

The original French version of the show previously dropped on Channel 4, the on demand streaming platform formerly known as All4, as part of the Walter presents label. Three seasons are available to stream right now, if you have already gobbled up all of Patience.

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Have you watched Patience yet? What do you think of the drama so far - let me know by email: [email protected].