McElhone resumes work after husband's death

Rex Features

Actress Natascha McElhone is to play a cross-dressing doctor in her first film since the shock death of her husband.

Martin Kelly, 43, collapsed and died in May this year.

McElhone is cast in the film Heaven and Earth as James Miranda Barry. Barry was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain, having had to dress as man to get into medical school.

She was the first to successfully perform a Cesarean in 1812, trained as an army medical officer and also became an inspector general.

"Barry defied every convention of her time," the 36-year-old actress said.