Miss Sally Browning Barbara Flynn Sally and her sister Phoebe, good friends of Molly's late mother, provide refuge and unsolicited advice to Molly in her absence. Barbara Flynn was initially attracted to the complexity of Elizabeth Gaskell's writing. "Charles Dickens, who was her editor, criticized her for diverging from the plot and going off the point, but that's precisely what makes her such a strong writer. Gaskell is so aware of the larger social canvas. This is not just a story about heaving bodices." Flynn has starred in numerous British television programs, including Cracker and The Beiderbecke Affair. In addition she's appeared as Goneril in the ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's presentation of King Lear and as Mary Bold in The Barchester Chronicles.