Miss Phoebe Browning Deborah Findlay Phoebe and her sister Sally, good friends of Molly's late mother, provide refuge and unsolicited advice to Molly in her absence. As she worked on Wives and Daughters, actress Deborah Findlay particularly enjoyed her pairing with Barbara Flynn, who portrayed Sally Browning. "We really sparked off each other. The Miss Brownings play a vital part in the story. They're not petty gossips; they have a deep concern for Molly, to whom they are surrogate mothers. Their worries about her well being are genuine. They are a lovely mixture of the funny and the touching." Findlay won Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Stanley in 1997. She has appeared in Truly, Madly, Deeply and The End of the Affair with Ralph Fiennes and starred as Countess Lydia in ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's Anna Karenina.