Person
Lynda Bellingham
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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 adv…
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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.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2012
Too Close for Comfort
Movie Mum
-
2010
Odd One In
TV show
-
2009
Mister Eleven
TV show Shirley
-
2008
All Star Mr & Mrs
TV show
-
2007
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
TV show Self
-
2007
Bonkers
TV show Mrs Wadlow
-
2006
Robin Hood
TV show
-
2004
Devil's Gate
Movie Marlene
-
2004
Murder in Suburbia
TV show Milly Goodman
-
2004
The Long Bank Holiday
Movie Councillor Marjorie Balsam
-
2004
New Tricks
TV show
-
2003
One Life
TV show
-
2003
Celebrity Naked Ambition
Movie Self (archive footage)
-
2003
The Last Detective
TV show
-
2001
Bodywork
Movie Poppy Fields
-
2001
Waking the Dead
TV show Mary Mantel
More credits
-
2000
The Romanovs: A Crowned Family
Movie Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna
-
2000
Reach for the Moon
TV show Penny Martin
-
2000
At Home with the Braithwaites
TV show Pauline Farnell
-
1999
Loose Women
TV show Self
-
1999
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Movie Maxine
- 1998
-
1998
The Scarlet Tunic
Movie Emily Marlowe
- 1997
-
1997
Midsomer Murders
TV show Jane Willows
-
1996
Dalziel and Pascoe
TV show Jess Pitman
-
1995
Faith in the Future
TV show
-
1994
Martin Chuzzlewit
TV show Mrs Lupin
-
1994
Junior Masterchef
TV show
-
1992
Gibberish
TV show
-
1991
Second Thoughts
TV show Faith
-
1988
This Morning
TV show Self
-
1987
The Vision
Movie Mary Morris
-
1987
Filthy Rich & Catflap
TV show Ms Tomkins
-
1986
Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe
Movie The Inquisitor
-
1986
Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids
Movie The Inquisitor
-
1986
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
Movie The Inquisitor
-
1986
Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet
Movie The Inquisitor
-
1986
Casualty
TV show Steph Yates
-
1985
Screen Two
TV show Mary Morris
