Lynda Bellingham
Lynda Bellingham played many roles during her five-decade professional career, but became synonymous with one. "Being a mum making gravy was not quite how I had seen my career advancing," she said once. But between 1983 and 1999 that's what she did in 42 "episodes" of an award-winning TV ad. Since the early 1980s, her name was rarely mentioned in print without it being prefaced with "Oxo mum".
During her career, though, she starred on TV as the vet's wife Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small in the 80s and as one of two divorcees trying to forge a relationship in the 90s sitcom Second Thoughts, opposite James Bolam. On stage she was best known for playing the lead in a touring production of Calendar Girls between 2008 and 2012. She was also, for four years between 2007 and 2011, a regular member of the team on Loose Women, the daytime TV chat show. She had few regrets about how her career turned out, summarising its trajectory thus on her website: "Arrived in London at the Central School [for Speech and Drama] in 1966 and never looked back. I had a ball!"
Bellingham, though, knew that gravy, like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, left an indelible mark. "In many ways I was very proud of what we did, but there is no doubt that my credibility as an actress was knocked," she reflected. "Certain people in the industry would never employ me as a serious actress after it. On the other hand, it gave me the financial security to go off and work in the theatre for very little money." Her performances as Mrs Oxo were reportedly responsible for a 10% increase in stock cube sales.
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Movies (20)
Too Close for Comfort
2012 · Mum
Devil's Gate
2004 · Marlene
The Long Bank Holiday
2004 · Councillor Marjorie Balsam
Celebrity Naked Ambition
2003 · Self (archive footage)
Bodywork
2001 · Poppy Fields
The Romanovs: A Crowned Family
2000 · Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
1999 · Maxine
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
1998
The Scarlet Tunic
1998 · Emily Marlowe
An Audience with Ronnie Corbett
1997
The Vision
1987 · Mary Morris
Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe
1986 · The Inquisitor
Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids
1986 · The Inquisitor
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
1986 · The Inquisitor
Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet
1986 · The Inquisitor
Riding High
1981 · Miss Mott
The Waterloo Bridge Handicap
1978 · Likely Lady (Miss Beamish)
Stand up, Virgin Soldiers
1977 · Valerie
Sweeney!
1977 · Janice Wyatt
Confessions of a Driving Instructor
1976 · Mary Truscott
TV shows (46)
Odd One In
2010
Mister Eleven
2009 · Shirley
All Star Mr & Mrs
2008
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
2007 · Self
Bonkers
2007 · Mrs Wadlow
Robin Hood
2006
Murder in Suburbia
2004 · Milly Goodman
New Tricks
2004
One Life
2003
The Last Detective
2003
Waking the Dead
2001 · Mary Mantel
Reach for the Moon
2000 · Penny Martin
At Home with the Braithwaites
2000 · Pauline Farnell
Loose Women
1999 · Self
Los asesinatos de Midsomer
1997 · Jane Willows
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996 · Jess Pitman
Faith in the Future
1995
Martin Chuzzlewit
1994 · Mrs Lupin
Junior Masterchef
1994
Gibberish
1992
Second Thoughts
1991 · Faith
This Morning
1988 · Self
Comic Relief
1988
Filthy Rich & Catflap
1987 · Ms Tomkins
Casualty
1986 · Steph Yates
Screen Two
1985 · Mary Morris
Surprise, Surprise
1984 · Self
Wogan
1982 · Self
Funny Man
1981 · Gwen
Mackenzie
1980 · Ruth Isaacs
Shoestring
1979 · Nicola
The Pink Medicine Show
1978
All Creatures Great and Small
1978 · Helen Herriot
An Audience with...
1978 · Self
Blake's 7
1978 · Vena
The Professionals
1977 · Betty Hope
Cottage to Let
1977 · Barbara
Don't Forget to Write!
1977 · Angela
Yus, My Dear
1976 · Carol
Angels
1975
The Sweeney
1975 · Nancy King
Tell Tarby
1973 · Nurse Norma Snockers
The Misfit
1970 · Wee Jeannie
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969 · Nurse Mary Tiller
Doctor Who
1963 · The Inquisitor
Z-Cars
1962