1. Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire was born on 10 October 1964 and is an English actress.
69 Facts About Sarah Lancashire
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Sarah Lancashire was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year Honours.
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Sarah Lancashire went on to play regular characters on Coronation Street, Where the Heart Is, and Clocking Off.
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Since the 2010s, Sarah Lancashire has garnered critical acclaim for her roles in series such as The Paradise, Last Tango in Halifax, Happy Valley, Kiri, and Julia.
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Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire was born on 10 October 1964 in Urmston, Lancashire.
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Sarah Lancashire's father, Geoffrey Lancashire, was a television scriptwriter for Coronation Street who wrote situation comedies such as The Cuckoo Waltz.
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Sarah Lancashire has three brothers, one older, one younger and a twin.
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Sarah Lancashire was educated at Oldham Hulme Grammar School between 1976 and 1981.
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Sarah Lancashire has stated she was never driven by the ideas of fame and status.
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Sarah Lancashire's background had inspired an initial interest in working behind the scenes in television.
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Sarah Lancashire did not give serious thought to the performing arts until the age of 18.
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Sarah Lancashire graduated in 1986, describing her time as a student there as "tremendous" but "seriously hard work and quite intimidating".
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Sarah Lancashire performed two plays with the company, Pacific Overtures and The Beauty Game, which she has stated formed "the start of my career as an actor".
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In 1987, Sarah Lancashire made a brief appearance in Coronation Street as Wendy Farmer, a prospective lodger of series regular Jack Duckworth.
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Two weeks after finishing her run in Blood Brothers, Sarah Lancashire auditioned for the role of new Coronation Street character Raquel Wolstenhulme, a colleague of supermarket employee Norman "Curly" Watts.
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Sarah Lancashire joined on a three-month contract, continuing to teach at Salford University for another year.
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Sarah Lancashire initially been reserved about Raquel's characterisation, observing her "acidic side" could have rendered her the "street bitch" had it been embellished.
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Sarah Lancashire took care to highlight Raquel's potential, playing against what had been written to make her more comic, evoking audience sympathy.
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Between 26 September and 19 October 1991, Sarah Lancashire played the title role in an adaption of Educating Rita at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch.
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Sarah Lancashire departed Coronation Street in 1996 due to her heavy work schedule and desire to pursue other projects.
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Sarah Lancashire had tired of the fame the role brought her, shying away from personal appearances and interviews with television magazines.
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Sarah Lancashire continued to star as Ruth Goddard in Where the Heart Is for its second and third series in 1998 and 1999.
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Sarah Lancashire's decision was reportedly influenced by the series filming away from home, and a fear that remaining in the series long term would harm her career.
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On 1 January 2000, Sarah Lancashire returned to Coronation Street for one episode in which Raquel asks Curly for a divorce.
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Sarah Lancashire felt it was an apt time to return, as she was now a more confident actress and wanted to portray Raquel again before she aged significantly.
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Sarah Lancashire used her own experiences as a single mother in her characterisation.
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Sarah Lancashire found shooting the drama, which detailed Atkins' decision to quit her acting career in order to set up a care home for abused children, "mentally draining".
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Sarah Lancashire then spent eight weeks filming the BBC One legal sitcom Chambers in which she played "ambitious" and "bigoted" barrister Ruth Quirke.
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Sarah Lancashire was voted best actress at the TV Quick Awards in September 2000 for her roles in Clocking Off and Seeing Red, and in October was voted Most Popular Actress at the 6th National Television Awards for Seeing Red.
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Sarah Lancashire became the first actress to be given such a contract with ITV.
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Sarah Lancashire admitted that heavy interest in Lancashire from the BBC had been a factor in giving her the contract, and blocking her from working with other networks.
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In March 2002, Sarah Lancashire received an Honorary Master of Arts degree from Salford University.
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Sarah Lancashire played a social worker grieving her second still-born child who is determined to protect a baby she perceives to be at risk of abuse.
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Sarah Lancashire drew on her own experiences of clinical depression in her depiction of her character's mentality.
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Sarah Lancashire's performance saw her awarded with a Golden Nymph award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
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Later that month, BBC News and newspaper The Guardian reported that Sarah Lancashire had exited her exclusive deal with ITV, which would not be renewed after it expired in the autumn.
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Sarah Lancashire re-read the novel several times prior to filming, and identified with the themes of filial and marital relationships she had been unable to appreciate as a GCSE student.
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Sarah Lancashire next filmed three two-part stories for Rose and Maloney, following on from the pilot episode in 2002.
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In 2005, Sarah Lancashire starred in The Rotters' Club as a housewife in 1970s Birmingham.
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Sarah Lancashire was proud to be involved with the project, having greatly admired Cannings' strength of character during her ordeal, and being able to relate to her sense of anguish as a parent.
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In December 2005, Sarah Lancashire returned to West End theatre, taking on the role of Miss Adelaide in the Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre.
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Sarah Lancashire was due to stay with the production until March 2006, but due to a severe chest infection made her last appearance on 4 January.
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In 2006, Sarah Lancashire accepted an invitation to write a short autobiographical entry in Who's Who.
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Between 2008 and 2011, Sarah Lancashire narrated the BBC One series Lark Rise to Candleford, a costume drama based on Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood in the 1880s.
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Sarah Lancashire was amongst a number of high-profile actors the series' executive producer Russell T Davies secured for the fourth series of the science-fiction drama as part of his intention to make it "bigger and blowsier".
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In 2009, Sarah Lancashire starred in the BBC One musical drama series All the Small Things.
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Sarah Lancashire played Esther Caddick, a full-time mother who starts a choir after her husband leaves her for a more glamorous woman.
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In 2010, Sarah Lancashire portrayed Rosemary Nicholls, mother of a murder victim, in the three-part BBC drama Five Daughters; a depiction of the Ipswich serial murders from the perspective of the victims and their families.
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In March 2011, Sarah Lancashire began starring in a new Cameron Mackintosh musical, Betty Blue Eyes, at the Novello Theatre.
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In September 2012, Sarah Lancashire began appearing as Head of Ladieswear Miss Audrey in the six-part series The Paradise set in a department store in Northern England in the late 19th century.
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Sarah Lancashire described her character as "a true archetypal spinster" who has long denied herself a romantic life and who begins to feel undermined by a younger colleague.
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Between November 2012 and March 2020, Sarah Lancashire appeared opposite Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi in the BBC drama series Last Tango in Halifax.
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Caroline's same-sex relationship with a fellow teacher resulted in Sarah Lancashire receiving more fan mail than for any other role, largely from women telling her that the series had helped them to come out.
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At the 2015 Hay Festival, Sarah Lancashire stated that of all the roles she has taken on in her career Caroline is the one she is most proud of, citing the "extraordinary impact" of the character.
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In 2014, Sarah Lancashire re-united with Last Tango in Halifax writer Sally Wainwright on the crime drama Happy Valley.
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Wainwright was keen to write another role for Sarah Lancashire after being "blown away" by her performances in Last Tango in Halifax.
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Mark Lawson of The Guardian identified the performance as a career best for Sarah Lancashire, stating that she perfectly conveyed "the script's demandingly contradictory notes of tragedy, comedy, love, guilt, weakness and courage".
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Sarah Lancashire stated that she found the second series as "emotionally brutal" as the first; disclosing to The Independent that she inhabited Catherine's emotional pain for the entirety of the shoot.
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Whilst promoting the second series, Sarah Lancashire refuted criticism about the level of violence towards women in the series, stating she "would never condone anything which [she] thought was salacious, titillating, or gratuitous" and that Catherine's experience represented an "absolutely honest portrayal of what a female police officer can be subjected to".
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In March 2015, Sarah Lancashire began filming a television adaptation of Ronald Harwoods 1980 play The Dresser.
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Sarah Lancashire was due to appear opposite Martin Freeman in Labour of Love, a political comedy by James Graham, at the Noel Coward Theatre in late 2017 but pulled out on 1 September "on doctor's advice" and was replaced by Tamsin Greig.
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Sarah Lancashire portrayed Julia Child in the HBO Max drama Julia.
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At the age of 22 Sarah Lancashire married her first serious boyfriend, Gary Hargreaves, a music lecturer 11 years her senior, whom she had met four years earlier.
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Sarah Lancashire's first child with Hargreaves was born in 1987; a second son was born in 1989.
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Two years into her role on Coronation Street, Sarah Lancashire experienced a 14-month nervous breakdown, but did not confide in anyone besides her close family or take any time off work.
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Sarah Lancashire felt her first marriage had contributed to her unhappiness; in 2001 she stated that though her marriage lasted ten years it "was 10 years longer than it should have done".
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Sarah Lancashire described leaving her marriage as a "cleansing experience" and a "renaissance"; one that enabled her to rediscover her sense of identity.
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In March 2003 Sarah Lancashire gave birth to her third son.
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Sarah Lancashire was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year Honours, both for services to drama.