Tanya Franks

Tanya Franks is an English actress, writer and producer, who is most known for starring roles on television in Family Affairs, The Bill, Pulling, as Rainie Cross in EastEnders, and Lucy Stevens in Broadchurch. Franks is also the founder of Stock-pot Productions, a film and theatre production company. She returned to EastEnders in 2011 as a regular, but later departed and made a surprise return to the show in 2014.

Career

Franks worked for 14 years in theatre both in the UK and abroad. Her roles included the title role in "Tess" at The Kings Head Theatre in London in 1989 which was Time Out's Critics Choice, and Sylv in Steven Berkoff's 25th Anniversary production of "East" at the Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End and on tour. Tanya then rose to prominence when her TV career began in 2000, after being cast in the Channel 5 soap opera Family Affairs as Karen Ellis. Franks continued in the soap opera for three years, with storylines including a cancer scare, infertility, surrogacy, and a child custody battle, before leaving the series in 2003. In 2004, Franks was cast as DI Rowanne Morell in the long-running ITV1 police serial-drama The Bill. Franks stayed with the serial for over a year, with her character investigating various murders of police officers and police corruption.

Franks

The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) are historically first known as a group of Germanic tribes that roamed the land between the Lower and Middle Rhine in the 3rd century AD, and second as the people of Gaul who merged with the Gallo-Roman populations during succeeding centuries, passing on their name to modern-day France and becoming part of the heritage of the modern French people. Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the military rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as Imperator Romanorum by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were portrayed as legitimate successors to the emperors of the Western Roman Empire.

The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium and the southern Netherlands. The kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 AD. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century. The Franks became very powerful after this. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Franks (disambiguation)

The Franks were a confederacy of ancient to early medieval Germanic tribes.

Franks may also refer to:

See also

Franks (surname)

Franks is also an Anglo-American surname, derived from the given name Frank. The name is on record in Virginia from the 1660s.

People with the surname include: