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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3585740/Glimmers-of-hope-in-the-gloom.html https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/dec/04/3-winters-lyttelton-london-review

Early life
Hesmondhalgh was born in Accrington, Lancashire on 25 February 1970, the daughter of two junior office workers whom she describes as "shy, retiring people who never sought the limelight". {{cite web|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2908674/Hayley-Actress-Julie-Hesmondhalgh-life-Corrie.html Her early career aspirations were to become a social worker. Hesmondhalgh attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art between 1988 and 1991 where her contemporaries included Benito Martinez. On finishing her training, Hesmondhalgh was a part of Arts Threshold, a small independent theatre in London, for several years.

and worked with Rufus Norris in his directorial debut. In the 1990s, she appeared in such television dramas as The Bill, Catherine Cookson's The Dwelling Place, and in the Victoria Wood comedic television movie Pat and Margaret.

Her brother David Hesmondhalgh is a writer and academic.

Appearances
Hartman is introduced in "Army of Ghosts"-the penultimate episode of the 2006 series of Doctor Who-as the director of the Torchwood Institute - an organization established by Queen Victoria in 1979 as a defence against alien threats. When the alien Time Lord known as the Doctor (David Tennant) stumbles upon Torchwood Yvonne takes him into her custody, explaining Torchwood's mission statement; to appropriate, research and use alien technology in order to defend earth and bolster an envisioned future British Empire. Yvonne's current experiments center around an invisible void between parallel universes which has resulted in ghostly figures appearing all over earth. By the time Yvonne heeds the Doctor's warnings about widening the fissure; it is too late. She discovers her employees have had their brains replaced by cybernetic implants, and the latest Torchwood 'Ghost Shift' is irreversible as millions of Cybermen — emotionless cyborgs from a parallel universe — finally take corporeal form. Yvonne loses control of Torchwood; as the Cybermen announce to the world that they will convert the entire human race into their form.

In series finale "Doomsday", the Cybermen's battle against the Daleks — a psychopathic mutant race also unleashed upon Earth by Torchwood's experiments —prompt them to convert all available humans, including Yvonne, by encasing them in new metallic bodies, rewiring their nervous systems and suppressing their minds by use of emotional inhibitors. As the episode reaches its climax and the Doctor discovers a way to seal the warring cyborg armies back in the void the Cybermen move to apprehend him. Yvonne's cybernetic form is revealed to have resisted it's programming; she blows up the Cyberman convoy and is last seen thrice insisting that she did her duty "for Queen and Country", oil leaking from her cybernetic eyes.

In 2015 Oberman reprised her role in the audio drama "One Rule" from Big Finish Productions, an expanded universe adventure based on the mythology of Doctor Who's televised spin-off Torchwood, set nine months prior to "Army of Ghosts".

Doctor Who 2006
Oberman's casting in Doctor Who was announced xxxx2005. She was approached with the role in a telephone call from the series' executive producer, Russell T Davies. In advance of her appearance in the series Oberman described herself "a lifelong fan, a proper 'Whovian' as we call ourselves". . She had been a fan of the series since the age of four; growing up watching John Pertwee and Tom Baker and pretending to be Romana. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Doctor+Who+gave+me+perfect+tonic%3B+Tracy-Ann+Oberman+needed+a+lift...-a0147678914 She noted that "walking on to the Doctor Who set and seeing the Tardis was a childhood dream come true". Her first scene was shot in a discarded nuclear bunker- a ginormous set all beautifully lit in gold and black" with David Tennant; Oberman felt the buzz on set was palpable and stated that she thought: "this is the best job ever". She felt that her role in the series had made her part of "Doctor Who history," later describing her stint as "two seminal episodes in Doctor Who."

Oberman characterized Hartman as "a strong woman and a fundamentalist" who one one level "respects the Doctor" but is "very wary of aliens." She felt the character was a villain who could challenge the Doctor intellectually, whilst seeing him "as being the prize alien in her collection." Davies had conceived that Yvonne had risen to the head of Torchwood rapidly; telling Oberman to think of her "as the woman who went in to the BBC as the filing clerk and, through sheer determination, people skills, charm and ruthlessness ended up running the network." Oberman felt this ananolgy of a rapid rise to power conveyed both the character's strength, but also an underlying vulnerability." She felt that overall the character was "not quite evil, just misguided". https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=usB-kPT4OOAC&pg=PT92&dq=%22yvonne+hartman%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBzgUahUKEwjTyOCap5DIAhUEcRQKHa4CBBA#v=onepage&q=%22yvonne%20hartman%22&f=true.

Discussing the dual themes of imperialism and cultural appropriation present in the 2006 series Christine Gilroy states that whilst Hartman subverts "the masculine ideal of the imperial ruling classes" her behaviors and attitudes are drawn from "antiquated imperial rhetoric and practice". She argues that Torchwood's own imperial or neo-imperial practice are paralleled by the goals of the invading Cyberen to assimiliate the human race. Gilroy notes that whilst "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" provide a critique of Yvonne's imperialiasm; it is the strength of her beliefs that prevent her being completely subordinated and assimilated into the Cybermen ranks. Gilroy concludes that the character's final act represents a "reflective political shift towards controversially protecting the homeland's values, rather than imposing them on others". Oberman felt that Hartman "earned her redemption" by being able to resist her programming and helping to save contemporary earth. She states that "for Queen and Country" remained her favourite line, and that she often uses it when signing fan memorabilia. Elspeth Kidd notes that in the revived series resistance to the Cybermen is embodied by the female characters, likening Yvonne's failed conversion to that of Lisa Hallett's in the Torchwood episode "Cyberwoman" (2006) and Mercy Hartigan in The Next Doctor (2008). She suggests that the Yvonne's is able to resist her cyver-programming because she is "patriotically pre-programmed" and her gender itself acting as an inherent defence against the "patriarchal matrix of Cyber-techonolgy."

Torchwood: "One Rule" (2015)
In 2015 Big Finish Productions released a press release announcing that Oberman would reprise her role as Yvonne Hartman in their upcoming Torchwood audio series in a release titled "One Rule". The story is set in Cardiff a year before Yvonne's death and involves a secret mission investigating an alien conspiracy that puts the character — who retains her "dress sense and marvellous people skills"- out of her depth. Series producer James Goss notes that he first suggested the character for the series BBC Worldwide indicated that they did not want to see "the all-powerful Queen Bee of Canary Wharf" but to see the character "come thoroughly unstuck in Cardiff". Jospeh lister, who wrote "One rule", indicated that he was presented with a choice of character's to write for but chose Yvonne due to her being "one of [his] favourite characters to have appeared in Doctor Who" stating that whilst the character has "questionable beliefs", "she genuinely thinks she's doing the best thing for her country".