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Pauline Quirke
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Pauline Quirke | |
---|---|
Born | Pauline Perpetua Quirke 8 July 1959 Hackney, London, England |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Actress, writer |
Years active | 1970–present |
Television | Birds of a Feather (1988–1999, 2014–2017) Emmerdale (2010–2012) Broadchurch (2013–2015) |
Spouse(s) | Steve Sheen (m. 1996) |
Children | 2 |
Website | Official website |
Pauline Perpetua Sheen (née Quirke; born 8 July 1959[1][2][3][4][5]) is an English actress who has played Sharon Theodopolopodous in the long-running comedy series Birds of a Feather from 1989 to 1998, and again from 2014 to 2017. For this role, she won the 1990 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. She was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1996 BBC miniseries The Sculptress. Her other television credits include Maisie Raine (1998–1999), Down to Earth (2000–2003), Emmerdale (2010–2012) and Broadchurch (2013–2015).
Career[]
Quirke began her career as a child actress aged eight with an appearance in Dixon of Dock Green. Another early role was that of an autistic teenager in the 1975 TV drama Jenny Can't Work Any Faster.
By 1976 she had her own TV show, Pauline's Quirkes, on Thames Television, which featured pop music, teenage topics, and comedy sketches. In 1976 she played the lead role in the "Special Offer" episode of ATV's Beasts, by Nigel Kneale, also starring Geoffrey Bateman, Wensley Pithey and Ruth Goring. Quirke also had a small role in the movie The Elephant Man in 1980, with future Emmerdale colleague Lesley Dunlop. Quirke played Veronica in Shine on Harvey Moon, a British television series made by Central Television for ITV from 8 January 1982 to 23 August 1985 and briefly revived in 1995 by Meridian.
Quirke's big break came in 1989, when she began playing the part of Sharon Theodopolopodous in the BBC sitcom Birds of a Feather with Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph. She remained with the series until its end in 1998 after nine series and over 100 episodes.
From 1994 to 1999, Quirke appeared in a series of Surf adverts with Linda Robson, and the pair worked together on the BBC documentary series Jobs for the Girls.[6] In 1996, she starred in the BBC television adaptation of The Sculptress by Minette Walters, receiving much critical acclaim for her performance, including a British Academy TV Award nomination for Best Actress. When Birds of a Feather ended, Quirke began playing DI Maisie Raine in Maisie Raine, a drama series for BBC One, which ran in 1998 and 1999.
From 2000 to 2003, Quirke starred opposite Warren Clarke in the BBC series Down to Earth. She made a return to comedy in 2000 when she starred with Neil Stuke, Robert Daws and Pippa Haywood in BBC sitcom Office Gossip. After a promising start with over six million viewers, the show found its ratings dropped and it was cancelled after only one series. However, Quirke was nominated for Most Popular Comedy Performer at the National Television Awards for her role. In 2002, she starred alongside Nitin Ganatra in Being April, a comedy drama for BBC One. Quirke appeared in Carrie's War in 2004 and in 2005, played a major role in The Bill (a show she claimed she longed to be on saying, "I must be the only actor in the UK that hasn't been in The Bill!"), as Cath Wilson, a woman wrongly convicted of murdering a child.
In 2006, Quirke played Colleen McCabe in The Thieving Headmistress and in 2008, she appeared in an episode of My Family as Sharon the Bank Robber. Quirke has frequently been seen in the audience of Strictly Come Dancing and has appeared on its companion show It Takes Two more than once. She was a contestant on BBC's Celebrity MasterChef in June 2007, but was disqualified for creating a dish that was described by Lloyd Grossman as "in no way resembling a meal".[7]
In 2009 and 2010, she played the lead role in the BBC daytime drama series Missing as DS Mary Jane "MJ" Croft, head of a Missing Persons Unit. In May 2010, it was announced that Quirke would be joining the rural soap opera Emmerdale as Hazel Rhodes, the mother of established character, Jackson Walsh.[8] Quirke said, "I've never done anything like this before so it's something different for me and I'm very happy to be a part of it."[8] On 16 May 2011, it was announced that Quirke had decided to quit Emmerdale. Hazel left on 25 January 2012, and Quirke has since said she would like to return.
Since 2013, Quirke recurs as Susan Wright in ITV drama series Broadchurch. Her pet Labrador, Bailey also appears in the programme.
On 2 January 2014, Quirke returned to play Sharon Theodopolopodous when ITV decided to revive Birds of a Feather. The second series premiered on 26 December 2014 and the third on 7 January 2016.[9]
She has been a guest panellist on Loose Women on two occasions.
In 2015, she played the role of Paula Winton in the ten-part comedy thriller You, Me and the Apocalypse for Sky1.[10]
Filmography[]
Year | Title | Role | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Film | |||
1980 | The Elephant Man | 2nd Whore | |
1982 | The Return of the Soldier | girl searching in hospital | |
1987 | Little Dorrit | Maggy | |
1988 | Distant Voices, Still Lives | Doreen | |
1989 | Getting It Right | Muriel Sutton | |
2001 | Arthur's Dyke | Janet | |
2010 | The Perfect Burger | Mrs. Grieves | |
Television | |||
1970 | Junket 89 | Molly | |
1971 | Dixon of Dock Green | Jane Taylor | |
1974 | The Tomorrow People | student | |
1975 | Jenny Can't Work Any Faster | Jenny | |
1976 | Pauline's Quirkes | Herself | |
1976 | Beasts | Noreen | |
1978 | Crown Court – The Green House Girls | Patsy Donovan | |
1979 | Lovely Couple | Carole Richards | |
1982–1983 | Angels | Vicky Smith | |
1984–1985, 1995 | Shine on Harvey Moon | Veronica | |
1989–1998 2014–2017 |
Birds of a Feather | Sharon Theodopolopodous | |
1996 | The Sculptress | Olive Martin | |
1998–1999 | Real Women | Mandy Evans | |
1998–1999 | Maisie Raine | Maisie Raine | |
1999 | David Copperfield | Peggotty | |
2000–2003 | Down to Earth | Faith Addis | |
2001 | Office Gossip | Jo Thomas | |
2002 | Being April | April | |
2004 | North & South | Dixon | |
2005 | The Bill | Cathy Wilson | |
2006 | The Thieving Headmistress | Colleen McCabe | |
2007 | Cold Blood | Hazel Norton | |
2009–2010 | Missing | DS Mary Jane Croft | |
2010 | Skins | DS Blunt | 3 episodes |
2010–2012 | Emmerdale | Hazel Rhodes | Regular: 235 Episodes |
2013—2015 | Broadchurch | Susan Wright | [11] |
2015 | You, Me and the Apocalypse | Paula Winton | [12] |
Awards and nominations[]
Year | Nominated For | Award | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | Birds of a Feather | British Comedy Awards | Best TV Comedy Newcomer | Won |
1990 | Best TV Comedy Actress | Nominated | ||
1997 | The Sculptress | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Actress | Nominated |
1997 | Birds of a Feather | National Television Awards | Most Popular Comedy Performer | Nominated |
1998 | Most Popular Actress | Nominated | ||
1999 | Most Popular Comedy Performer | Nominated | ||
2001 | Office Gossip | Nominated | ||
2002 | Down to Earth | Most Popular Actress | Nominated | |
2011 | Emmerdale | The British Soap Awards | Best Newcomer | Nominated |
Personal life[]
Quirke has two children, Emily and Charlie (who stars as Travis in Birds of a Feather) and is married to producer Steve Sheen.[13] During an appearance on The Paul O'Grady Show in 2007, Quirke told of how she suffers from severe stage fright and nerves and she usually refuses to appear on live television shows.
In 2007 The Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts opened its doors at various locations across the UK. Quirke set this up as an extracurricular centre for young people who want to learn performing arts. There are currently more than 200 academies across the UK.[14][better source needed]
References[]
- ^ "Pauline Perpetua SHEEN". gov.uk.
- ^ "Desert Island Discs: Pauline Quirke". BBC. 10 May 1996. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
- ^ "FreeBMD Entry Info". www.freebmd.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ Hellomagazine.com. "Pauline Quirke. Biography, news, photos and videos". hellomagazine.com. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ "Pauline Quirke". IMDb. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ Ella Glazer, ed. (2002). Fun with the Famous. Robson. p. 83. ISBN 1861055838.
Pauline and I were doing a series called Jobs for the Girls. That particular week I was asked to go and work for The Guardian newspaper as a photographer
- ^ [1] Archived 27 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Jump up to: a b Green, Kris (28 May 2010). "Pauline Quirke joins 'Emmerdale'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ Eames, Tom (12 March 2015). "Birds of a Feather renewed for 12th series by ITV – TV News". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
- ^ "You, Me and the Apocalypse – Character Guide – British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
- ^ "'Broadchurch': The Evolution of Pauline Quirke | Anglophenia". BBC America. 31 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
- ^ "You, Me and the Apocalypse". NBC.com. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
- ^ Martland, Lisa (17 April 2014). "The Stage Scholarships 2014 – Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts". Retrieved 5 July 2014.
- ^ "PQA - OUR STORY". Retrieved 23 August 2020.
External links[]
- Living people
- English child actresses
- English film actresses
- English stage actresses
- English soap opera actresses
- English television actresses
- Actresses from London
- People from Hackney Central
- Alumni of the Anna Scher Theatre School
- 20th-century English actresses
- 21st-century English actresses
- 1959 births