The face: Felicity Jones

She made her TV debut aged 12 and secured a continuing role as the “strumpet” Emma in The Archers three years later. But while Felicity Jones, 25, can still play precocious teenagers, her new Hollywood agent plans to take the actress far beyond Ambridge.

Jones gave up parties while studying for her English degree at Oxford. In Chéri, the new Stephen Frears film that has its premiere tonight, she plays a virginal heiress.

Now signed to the Creative Artists Agency in LA, Jones has won the female lead in Ricky Gervais’s new film, The Men at the Pru.

British actress Felicity Jones has signed to play the female lead in Ricky Gervais' 1970s insurance-world dramedy "The Men at the Pru."

Jones will play Julie, who is led to believe by the men around her that a woman should focus on raising a family but who wants to break out and pursue a career in photography.

The picture, from the Sony International Motion Picture Production Group, which is designed to cultivate local production, is set to shoot in the summer in the U.K. It revolves around three men in their 20s who work at an insurance company (Pru is short for Prudential). Gervais is writing, directing and producing with "Extras" collaborator Stephen Merchant.

Jones has had roles in a number of high-profile British pics, starring last year in Julius Jarrold's "Brideshead Revisited" for Miramax, in the specialty division's upcoming Stephen Frears' period romance "Cheri," and Julie Taymor's femme-centric retelling of "The Tempest."

Jones has also just signed with CAA in the U.S. She continues to be repped by Independent Talent Group in the U.K.

Ambridge was never like this!

Felicity Jones has had quite a time travelling the world to make movies with Michelle Pfeiffer and Helen Mirren. But she always returns to Ambridge. 'I've been doing it now for ten years - it would be weird not to,' said Felicity who plays love-cheat Emma Grundy in the broadcasting institution The Archers.

Away from fictional village life, the 25-year-old has become one of the most versatile of our rising stars.

Last year, she held her own opposite Penelope Wilton and Margaret Tyzack in Michael Grandage's acclaimed Donmar production of The Chalk Garden. Next month sees the Oxford graduate sharing the big screen with Ms Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend in Stephen Frears's sumptuously costumed and photographed movie Cheri, based on the novel by Colette. Mr Friend plays Cheri, the pampered son of a courtesan who is tutored in the art of high-living and much else by Pfeiffer, a refined artisan.

But Cheri is pushed into an arranged marriage with Edmee, a virginal heiress, played by Felicity with a quietly determined edge.

Actually, it's the relationship between Edmee and Cheri that, for me, gave the movie some spark. 'Edmee's so young, and her mother has used her as a commodity - to marry her off when she becomes useful.

She seems quite a victim but she has her own way of asserting herself,' Felicity noted, adding: 'She loves Cheri but is petrified at the same time.' In the movie, Friend wears more make-up than Felicity.

'He's beautiful. I love the vanity of his character, it's as though he's been petted and treated like a little boy.'

After shooting Cheri, Felicity hurled herself into Julie Taymor's idiosyncratic film version of The Tempest, with Helen Mirren playing Prospera, Felicity as Miranda and Ben Whishaw as Ariel. It was a project that called for rehearsals in London, studio work in Brooklyn and location filming in Hawaii Then it was back to Ambridge.

'Ed and Emma are supposed to be in domestic bliss at the moment, and in radio terms happiness in love probably isn't the best thing,' she observed, before adding slyly: 'I have just been recording some episodes to be broadcast later this month.' Hit that dial!

This summer, Nichola's due to grace our cinema screens again in Souled Out, a zesty tale of love rivalry set against the backdrop of the 70s Northern Soul scene.

"I knew nothing about Northern Soul before we started," she admits. "I didn't even realise all these songs I knew were Northern Soul. When I first watched a video clip from the Wigan Casino or wherever I was amazed at the energy of their dancing, how it was spontaneous but choreographed at the same time. It's funny how the men would all try to outdo each other with their moves while it was the girls who just pranced about looking pretty."

In Souled Out, Burley appears alongside another rising British female star, Felicity Jones (Brideshead Revisited). The two have become fast friends. "She's such a sweet girl, really intelligent, really switched on. She's a bit older than me so she's like a model for where I'd like to be in couple of year's time. It's weird because I'd love to do the whole period thing while she wants to play more gritty characters."