Alison Steadman (born 26 August 1946) is an English actress. She received the 1977 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for ''

Abigail's Party ''Abigail's Party'' is a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the ...

'', the 1991

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the National Society of Film Critics to honour the best leading actress of the year. Winners 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multipl ...

for the

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years. His accolades include prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin In ...

film '' Life Is Sweet'' and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of ''

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice ''The Rise and Fall of Little Voice'' is a 1992 play written by English dramatist Jim Cartwright. Production history Sam Mendes directed the first production at the Royal National Theatre that transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in London's ...

''. In a 2007

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

poll, the '50 Greatest Actors' voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42. Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in Mike Leigh's 1970s TV plays '' Nuts in May'' (1976) and ''

'' (1977). She received

BAFTA TV Award The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards, are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in ...

nominations for the 1986

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

serial ''

The Singing Detective ''The Singing Detective'' is a six-part BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It". ...

'' and in 2001 for the ITV drama series '' Fat Friends'' (2000–2005). Other television roles include ''

Pride and Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is the second published novel (but third to be written) by English author Jane Austen, written when she was age 20-21, and later published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabe ...

'' (1995), ''

Gavin & Stacey ''Gavin & Stacey'' is a British sitcom created, written by and starring James Corden and Ruth Jones about two families: one from Billericay in Essex, and the other from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. Mathew Horne and ...

'' (2007–2010, 2019, 2024) and '' Here We Go'' (2022–present). Her other film appearances include ''

Clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to ...

'' (1986), '' Blame It on the Bellboy'' (1992), '' Confetti'' (2006), '' Burn Burn Burn'' (2015) and '' Better Man'' (2024).

Early life and education

Steadman was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, the youngest of three sisters born to Marjorie (née Evans) (1912–1996) and George Percival Steadman (1912–1991), who worked as a production controller for

Plessey The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...

, an electronics firm. Steadman was educated at Childwall Valley High School for Girls, a state grammar school in the Liverpool suburb of

Childwall Childwall () is a suburb and ward of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England, located to the southeast of the city. It is bordered by Belle Vale, Bowring Park, Broadgreen, Gateacre, Mossley Hill, and Wavertree. In 2019, the population was 13,640. ...

, followed by East 15 Acting School, at which she secured a place in the autumn of 1966 and where she met

during her second year.

Career

Stage work

Having left the East 15 Acting School in

Loughton Loughton () is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. The town borders Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell, Chingford, and Buckhurst Hill, and lies north-east of Charing Cross. For statistical purposes ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, Steadman worked in various regional repertory theatres, starting at Lincoln in 1968, where her first role was the schoolgirl Sandy in '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie''. She created the role of the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leigh's ''

'', which she reprised with the original cast on television. She won an

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Aw ...

for ''

'' and also appeared in ''

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...

'', ''

Entertaining Mr Sloane ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' is a three-act play written in 1963 by the English playwright Joe Orton. It was first produced in London at the New Arts Theatre on 6 May 1964 and transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre on 29 June 1964. Pl ...

'', ''Hotel Paradiso'', and others in locations as diverse as the

Royal Court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word ''court'' may also be app ...

, the Theatre Royal, the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

, the

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. History The original ''Hampstead Theatre Clu ...

, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Everyman Liverpool and the National Theatre. She starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...

'', which was adapted for BBC television. 2002 saw her play the role of Hillary in Debbie Isitt's '' The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband'' at the West End's Ambassadors Theatre to widely positive reviews. In 2010 Steadman played Madame Arcati in a revival of

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

's '' Blithe Spirit''. In 2014 Steadman appeared as Madame Raquin in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Emile Zola's '' Thérèse Raquin''.

Film

Steadman has appeared in many films, including '' P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang'' (1982), '' Champions'' (1983), '' A Private Function'' (1984), ''Number One'' (1984), ''

'' (1986), '' Stormy Monday'' (1988), '' The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988), '' Shirley Valentine'' (1989), '' Wilt'' (1989), '' Life Is Sweet'' (1990), '' Blame It on the Bellboy'' (1992), ''

Topsy-Turvy ''Topsy-Turvy'' is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert and Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. T ...

'' (1999), '' The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' (2004), '' Confetti'' (2006), '' Burn Burn Burn'' (2015), Dads Army (2016) and ''

23 Walks ''23 Walks'' is a 2020 British romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Morrison. It stars Alison Steadman, Dave Johns and Graham Cole. It was released on 30 July 2020 in Australia and on 25 September 2020 to cinemas in the Unit ...

'' (2020).

Television

Steadman is credited with sharing the first lesbian kiss on British television with Myra Frances. Broadcast on 25 February 1974, ''Girl'' is the story of the love affair of two WRAC soldiers. “When I was first offered the part I felt quite nervous,” she said and was relieved that her “mum said it was great and was very moved by it.” An early television appearance came in 1976 which saw Steadman cast as Cheryl Baker in the

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

daytime series '' Crown Court.'' Her character was the secretary of a

confidence trick A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irrespons ...

ster found guilty of

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

. Other television work includes '' Fat Friends'' as Betty, '' Grumpy Old Women'', '' Stressed Eric'', '' Let Them Eat Cake'', ''

'', '' No Bananas'', '' The Caucasian Chalk Circle'', '' Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years'' as Pauline Mole, opposite James Bolam in the television film '' The Missing Postman'', and ''

'' as Mrs. Bennet. In 1991, she also appeared as

Edda Göring Edda Carin Wilhelmine Göring (2 June 1938 – 21 December 2018) was the only child of German politician, military leader, and leading member of the Nazi Party Hermann Göring, and his second wife the German actress Emmy Sonnemann. Born the ye ...

in '' Selling Hitler'' and as Lauren Patterson in '' Gone to the Dogs'', which was then followed up by '' Gone to Seed''. Television productions directed by Leigh in which she has appeared include '' Nuts in May'', ''

Hard Labour Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included inv ...

'' and ''

''. She also appeared in the

comedy '' The Worst Week of My Life''. In 2007 she featured in the

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

programme '' Coming Home'' about her Welsh family history, with roots in Trefarclawdd and

Ruabon Ruabon (; ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough, with city status in the United Kingdom, city status, in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. I ...

. In October 2007 Steadman appeared in ''

Fanny Hill ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'' – popularly known as ''Fanny Hill'' – is an erotic novel by the English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748 and 1749. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London,Wagne ...

'' on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

. From May 2007 to January 2010 Steadman starred in the

comedy ''

'' as Pam Shipman. She returned to the role for the Christmas specials in 2019 and 2024 respectively. She appeared in '' Lewis'' as the Reverend Martha Steadman in 'Intelligent Design' in 2013. In 2014 Steadman starred as Joyce in the first series of the BBC comedy '' Boomers,'' followed by a Christmas special in 2015 and a second series in 2016. In 2016 she presented the three-part series ''Little British Islands with Alison Steadman'' on Channel 4. The series visited Gigha, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay in episode 1, Jersey, Alderney and Sark in episode 2 and the Isles of Scilly in episode 3. In 2016 she appeared as Abigail in the Midsomer Murders episode 'The incident at Cooper Hill'. In 2018 Steadman made a return to BBC1 with

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...

in '' Hold the Sunset''. On 9 December 2018 Steadman appeared in the BBC1 Drama 'Care' in the role of Mary. Also in 2018 she featured in ITV1 mini series Butterfly where she played Maxine Duffy’s Grandmother.

Radio

On radio, Steadman's talent for mimicry and character voices was given full rein in the 1970s, mainly at BBC Manchester, in comedy sketch shows including '' Week Ending'', ''Castle's on the Air'' and ''The Worst Show on the Wireless''. In the second and third of these she played the over-protective mother to Eli Woods's long-suffering ''Bunty/Precious''. From 1982 to 1984, also at BBC Manchester, she joined Eli Woods and Eddie Braben ('' Morecambe and Wise''s scriptwriter) in 13 episodes of the radio comedy ''The Show with No Name'', written by Braben, which can best be described as an updated version of the comedy sketch show ''

Round the Horne ''Round the Horne'' is a BBC Radio comedy programme starring Kenneth Horne, first transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968. The show was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who wrote the first three series. The f ...

''. In the early to mid 1980s Steadman also had a spell in Roy Hudd's long-running comedy sketch series ''The News Huddlines''. From 2002 she co-starred as Mrs Naughtie in the situation comedy series '' Hamish and Dougal''. In December 2009 she starred in Mike Stott's ''My Mad Grandad'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. From 2012 she played Ginny Fox, a parody of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

, in the sitcom '' Gloomsbury''. In 2018 she made a guest appearance in Radio 4's ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word Radio broadcasting, channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now pr ...

'' as Olwen, a friend of Jill Archer.

Personal life

In 1972 director

drove to Liverpool to see Ted Whitehead's play ''The Foursome'', which featured Steadman. He asked her to be in his film ''

'', during which, both said, they "got together". They married in 1973 and had two sons. The couple lived with their sons in

Wood Green Wood Green is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London, and today it forms ...

, London. They separated in 1995 and divorced in 2001. Steadman's partner is actor Michael Elwyn. The couple live in

Highgate Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...

, London. She is a birdwatcher and in November 2016 became an ambassador for

London Wildlife Trust London Wildlife Trust is an English wildlife charity based in London. Founded in 1981, London Wildlife Trust is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature charity ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Biodata at Debrett's
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Steadman, Alison 1946 births Living people 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses Actresses from Liverpool Alumni of East 15 Acting School Birdwatchers English film actresses English radio actresses English stage actresses English television actresses English voice actresses Laurence Olivier Award winners Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Childwall Valley High School for Girls