Maureen Lipman

Lipman has been nominated for seven Olivier Awards across categories commending acting in plays, musicals and comedy, winning in 1984 for See How They Run. On film, Lipman was BAFTA nominated for Educating Rita (1983) and has also appeared in The Wildcats of St Trinian's (1980), Carry On Columbus (1992), Solomon & Gaenor (1999) and The Pianist (2002). On television, Lipman had prominent roles in Agony (1979–1981), Smiley's People (1982), Eskimo Day (1996) and Ladies of Letters (2009–2010). Since 2018, she has starred in Coronation Street as Evelyn Plummer.

Maureen Lipman studied at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. The recorded working language is English. Residence is recorded at Muswell Hill. Distinctions recorded are Laurence Olivier Awards, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

• Honorific Prefix — Dame • Name — Maureen Lipman • Birth Name — Maureen Diane Lipman • Born — 10 May 1946 • Birthplace — Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England • Education — London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art • Occupation — Actress, comedian, writer • Partner — Guido Castro (2008–2021) • Children — 2, including Amy Rosenthal • Years Active — 1968–present

Lipman was born on 10 May 1946 in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the Ferens Art Gallery and Monument Bridge. Lipman grew up Jewish and found post-war Hull a welcoming place for the Jewish community. She lived in Northfield Road, Hull and attended Wheeler Primary School. The family later moved to The Greenway in Anlaby Park. Lipman then attended Newland School for Girls in Hull, and in her youth became interested in performing. She performed in school productions, attended an early Beatles concert, and watched Elizabeth Taylor's Butterfield 8 fifteen times. Her first performances at home included impersonations of Alma Cogan; "a nice Jewish girl, she was big in our house", and she was encouraged into an acting career by her mother, who used to take her to the pantomime and push her onto the stage. Lipman trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Lipman worked extensively in the theatre following her début in a stage production of The Knack at the Watford Palace Theatre. In order to get the post, she pretended that a documentary producer wanted to follow her finding her first job – this was a lie but it seemed to work. Lipman was a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic from 1971 to 1973 and of the Royal Shakespeare Company for its 1973 Stratford season. Lipman has continued to work in the theatre for more than fifty years, playing, among other roles, Aunt Eller in the National Theatre's Oklahoma!. From November 2005 to April 2006 she played Florence Foster Jenkins in the Olivier Award-nominated show Glorious! at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End. From October 2010 to February 2011, Lipman starred in a production of J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married at the Garrick Theatre. In 2012, she directed and appeared in a production of Barefoot in the Park on tour and starred in Old Money at Hampstead Theatre. In 2013, she starred in Daytona at the Park Theatre followed by a tour, and in 2014 a season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 2015, she starred with James Dreyfus in Mary Chase's play Harvey at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, on tour and at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 2016, she starred in My Mother Said I Never Should at the St. James Theatre. In 2017, she starred with Felicity Kendal in a revival of Lettice and Lovage at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In 2018, she starred with Martin Shaw in The Best Man at the Playhouse Theatre, as well as returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in fifty years with a one-woman show of jokes and storytelling called Up For It. Lipman is set to appear in a special performance of Right Before I Go for World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September 2026. Following Gerard McCarthy's withdrawal from the play over Lipman's views on the Israel–Palestine conflict, Lipman criticised the actor for being "so cowardly", claiming that McCarthy had been radicalised and described their withdrawal as "virtue-signalling".

Lipman's first television role was in The Inquisitors opposite Diana Dors; other early appearances included the sitcoms The Lovers, and Doctor at Large, and a role in The Evacuees (1975). Lipman first gained prominence on television in the situation comedy Agony (1979–81), in which she played an agony aunt with a troubled private life. In her role as Stella Craven in Smiley's People (1982), Lipman appeared with Alec Guinness. She performed the Joyce Grenfell monologue The Committee for the first time on The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, which was recorded 1982, and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983. • Illustration — Lipman performing as Joyce Grenfell in The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog She played the lead role in the television series All at No 20 (1986–87) and took on a range of diverse characters when starring in the series of comedy plays About Face (1989–91). She is known for playing Joyce Grenfell in the biographical show Re: Joyce!, which she co-wrote with James Roose-Evans. In 1996 she appeared in the BBC comedy drama Eskimo Day, written by husband Jack Rosenthal and directed by Piers Haggard, about the trials and tribulations of three young would-be students as they arrive with their families at Queens' College, Cambridge, on interview day. There was a sequel, Cold Enough for Snow, in 1997. She appeared as snooty landlady Lillian Spencer in Coronation Street for six episodes in 2002. The character was employed by Fred Elliott (John Savident) to run The Rovers Return Inn. She re-joined the cast of Coronation Street in August 2018, this time playing Evelyn Plummer, the long-lost grandmother of Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall). During filiming for the show in November 2023, she was accompanied by a security guard due to a rise in antisemitic attacks in the UK. In 2003 she appeared in Jonathan Creek in the episode "The Tailor's Dummy". Lipman played Maggie Wych in the children's television show The Fugitives, broadcast in 2005. She has narrated two television series on the subject of design, one for UKTV about Art Deco and one about 20th-century design for ITV/Sky Travel. She performed as a villain, The Wire, in the 2006 series of Doctor Who in the episode entitled "The Idiot's Lantern". She has also appeared on Just a Minute, The News Quiz, That Reminds Me, This Week and Have I Got News for You. In 2007, Lipman appeared as a celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice to raise money for Comic Relief. The show saw her helping to run a funfair. Later in 2007, she made a guest appearance in Casualty; this was followed by an appearance in a December 2011 episode of the Casualty spin-off Holby City, playing a different character. In May 2008, she appeared in the BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain. On Sunday 11 January 2009, BBC Four was devoted to a "Maureen Lipman Night". On 5 February 2009, she appeared in the third series of teen drama Skins, in the episode entitled "Thomas" as Pandora Moon's Aunt Elizabeth. She played Irene Spencer in the ITV3 comedy Ladies of Letters, in which she starred alongside Anne Reid. The show's first series started in 2009, and it returned for a second series in 2010.

In 1987, she was cast as the character "Beatrice Bellman" ("Beatie/BT"), a Jewish grandmother in a series of television commercials for British Telecom, a role which became sufficiently well known to launch a book You Got An Ology in 1989, and which was still referred to 25 years later by politicians.

Lipman is a practising Jew, and a member of the West London Synagogue. She was married to dramatist Jack Rosenthal from 1974 until his death in 2004, and had a number of roles in his works. The couple had two children, writers Amy and Adam Rosenthal. Following Rosenthal's death, she moved from Muswell Hill, north London, to Paddington. She also has a small apartment in Manchester, where she stays when filming Coronation Street. Retired computer expert Guido Castro, an Egyptian Jew, was her partner from 2008 until his death in January 2021. In August 2024, Lipman became engaged to David Turner, co-founder of gym chain LA Fitness (now owned by PureGym). The couple were married at his home in September 2025.

Lipman supports the work of the Burma Campaign UK, Europe's largest NGO regarding Myanmar (Burma). She supports the process of democratisation in the country, and the work of Prospect Burma, a non-political charity that offers Burmese students the opportunity to study at university overseas. Lipman spoke on behalf of Prospect Burma in the BBC Radio 4 Appeal, broadcast in September 2009.

Lipman supported Israel's cause during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah conflict. On 13 July 2006, in a debate on the BBC's This Week, she argued that "human life is not cheap to the Israelis, and human life on the other side is quite cheap actually, because they strap bombs to people and send them to blow themselves up." These comments were condemned by columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown who said "Brutally straight, she sees no equivalence between the lives of the two tribes". Lipman responded to Alibhai-Brown's accusation of racism by arguing that the columnist had deliberately misrepresented Lipman's comments as generalisations about Muslims rather than specific comments about terrorists. Australian scholar and journalist John Pilger characterised Lipman as a "promoter of selective good causes" who is "allowed to say, without serious challenge" that human life on the other side is cheap. In The Jewish Chronicle, Lipman argued that media reporting of the conflict was "heavily distorted": In May 2015, Lipman joined pro-Israel groups, including the Zionist Federation, in a protest against the Palestinian play The Siege in its London premiere at Battersea Arts Centre. In a 2016 interview, she ridiculed the Palestinians' "so-called" right to return, arguing that nobody "in history has ever had the right to return," and dismissed any United Nations' resolutions censuring Israel for its no-return policy, saying "This is all voted by people who don't allow women to drive and make them cover their heads with black bags." In an interview with The Guardian on 18 August 2020, Lipman stated she would not be prepared to work alongside pro-Palestinian actors, citing Maxine Peake and Miriam Margolyes as examples. During the Gaza war in 2024, Lipman said that protests against Israel are "close to fascism". She stated: "These bleeding, heartless liberals care so deeply for the Palestinians that they espouse their cause at the expense of every other oppressed people of the world... Shame. Shame. Shame on every one of you."

In a January 2015 interview on LBC Radio, Lipman said she was considering emigrating to the United States or Israel in response to what she perceived as increasing antisemitism in the United Kingdom. Lipman joined a November 2023 march against antisemitism in London alongside prominent celebrities including Vanessa Feltz, Robert Rinder, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Elliot Levey, Rachel Riley, Eddie Marsan, and David Baddiel. In May 2026, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign posted an image of Lipman with devil horns and a pitchfork, alleging she had a "long record of harmful statements about Muslims, Palestinians and Palestinian rights". This was part of the group's petition calling for the cancellation of Lipman's performance in Allegra at Aberdeen. The Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned the depiction as antisemitic. As campaigners sought to disrupt performances of the play, Lipman had hired private security for her theatre tour and criticised the British government's failure to adequately address antisemitism.

At the 2005 general election, Lipman supported the Labour Party, but declared in October 2014 that she could no longer do so due to leader Ed Miliband's support for a parliamentary motion in favour of recognising the State of Palestine. In April 2018, Lipman criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for the way he had ostensibly handled antisemitism in the Labour Party and the party's reputed failure to address the issue. Lipman attended a protest outside Labour's head office and said she was there "as a disenfranchised socialist". She identified with a placard reading "Corbyn made me a Tory". In a 2020 interview, she described herself as a "Labour luvvie" under the tenure of Tony Blair, as opposed to a "party member". She also said she would have to be "stark raving mad to support Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson". However, in July 2026, she announced that she supports Kemi Badenoch and is considering voting for the Conservative Party.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1968 — The Inquisitors — Magda Barcelona — Episode: "The Peeling of Sweet Pea" • 1969–1970, 1981 — ITV Playhouse — Liz; Little Satin Bottom/The Mayoress; Zoya Krein — Episodes: "In a Cottage Hospital", "The People's Jack", "Last Night Another Dissident..." • 1969–1970, 1973 — ITV Sunday Night Theatre — Joanna Dibble; Barbara; Cathleen — Episodes: "It's Called the Sugar Plum", "The Gingham Dog", "Long Day's Journey Into Night" • 1970 — Codename — Lisa — Episode: "A Walk with the Lions" • Don't Ask Us – We're New Here — Various — TV series • The — Sandra Appleton — Episode: "Brainwashing" • 1971 — Doctor at Large — Maxine — Episode: "Saturday Matinee" • 1973 — Thriller — Liz Morris — Episode: "File It Under Fear" • Casanova '73 — Gloria — Episode #1.3 • 1973–1975 — Crown Court — Sarah Lewis — Recurring role • 1974 — Armchair Cinema — Annie — Episode: "Regan" • You'll Never Walk Alone — Marjorie Pouncey — TV short • 1975 — The — Sarah Miller — TV film • Three Comedies of Marriage — Rachel — Episode: "Bobby Bluesocks" • 1975–1976 — Couples — Marian Steinberg — Main role • 1976 — The — Mrs. Smedley — Episode: "Selected Target" • Rogue Male — Freda — TV film • 1978 — A — Alison Holmes — TV series • Play for Today — Sharon Benson — Episode: "Dinner at the Sporting Club" • 1979 — The — Mrs. Paige — Episode #1.2 • The — Brenda Weller — TV film • 1979–1981 — Agony — Jane Lucas — Main role • 1981 — The — Margaret Thatcher (voice) — Episode: "Away from It All" • Dangerous Davies – The Last Detective — Ena Lind — TV film • 1982 — Jackanory — Witch — Episode: "The Witching Hour" • Smiley's People — Stella Craven — TV mini-series • Objects of Affection — Val — Episode: "Rolling Home" • Outside Edge — Maggie — TV film • 1983 — The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog — Joyce Grenfell • 1984 — See How They Run — Miss Skillon • 1985 — On Your Way, Riley — Kitty McShane • Love's Labour's Lost — The Princess of France • Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV — Ruth — Episode #1.5 • Theatre Night — Marge — Episode: "Absent Friends" • Absurd Person Singular — Jane Hopcroft — TV film • 1986 — Screenplay — Julie — Episode: "Shift Work" • 1986–1987 — All at No 20 — Sheila Haddon — TV series • 1987 — A — Miss Minchin — TV mini-series • First Sight — Tamara — Episode: "Exclusive Yarns" • 1989–1991 — About Face — Various — Main role • 1991 — Re:Joyce! – A Celebration of the Work of Joyce Grenfell — Joyce Grenfell — TV film • 1992 — Bookmark — Enid Blyton — Episode: "Sunny Stories" • 1995 — Call up the Stars — Joyce Grenfell — TV film • Agony Again — Jane Lucas — Main role • 1996 — Eskimo Day — Shani Whittle — TV film • 1997 — Cold Enough for Snow — Shani Whittle • 1999 — Oklahoma! — Aunt Eller • 2002 — George Eliot: A Scandalous Life — Narrator • Coronation Street — Lillian Spencer — Guest role, 6 episodes • 2003 — Jonathan Creek — Louise Bergman — Episode: "The Tailor's Dummy" • Winter Solstice — Marcia — TV film • 2004 — Where the Heart Is — Stella Sinclair — Episode: "Body & Soul" • 2005 — The — Maggie Wynch — Recurring role • 2006 — Doctor Who — The Wire — Episode: "The Idiot's Lantern" • 2007 — Sensitive Skin — Sue Shortstop — Episodes: "Three Lost Loves", "Here I Am" • Casualty — Hannah 'Hayley' Liddell — Episode: "Behind Closed Doors" • 2008 — He Kills Coppers — Lily Porter — TV film • 2009 — Skins — Aunt Elizabeth — Episode: "Thomas" • Minder — Anita Richardson — Episode: "The Art of the Matter" • 2009–2010 — Ladies of Letters — Irene Spencer — Main role • 2011 — Tinga Tinga Tales — Hummingbird (voice) — Episode: "Why Hummingbird Hums" • Holby City — Bonnie Walters — Episode: "Half Empty" • 2012 — Midsomer Murders — Mags Dormer — Episode: "Written in the Stars" • 2015 — The — Alicia — Episode: "Comic Relief Special 2015" • Bull — Beverley Bull — Main role • The — Maggie Higgins — Episode #3.6 • 2016–2019 — Plebs — Landlady — Recurring role (series 3–5) • 2016 — The Crystal Maze — Mumsey — Episode: "SU2C Special" • 2018– — Coronation Street — Evelyn Plummer — Main cast • 2021 — Rose — Rose — TV film • 2026 — Father Brown — Patricia Parkinson — Episode: "The Palace by the Sea"

Selected. • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1971 — Tyger — Performer — New Theatre, London • 1979 — Outside Edge — Maggie — Queen's Theatre, London • 1983 — On Your Way, Riley — Kitty McShane — The Queen's Theatre • 1984 — See How They Run — Miss Skillon — Shaftesbury Theatre, West End • 1986 — Wonderful Town — Ruth Sherwood — Queen's Theatre, London • 1991-1992 — The Cabinet Minister — Lady Kitty Twombley — UK Tour • 1992-1993 — Lost in Yonkers — Bella — UK Tour • 1993-1994 — Re: Joyce! — Joyce Grenfell — UK Tour • 1994 — The Sisters Rosensweig — Gorgeous Teitelbaum — The Old Vic, London • 1998 — Oklahoma! — Aunt Eller — Royal National Theatre, London • 1999-2000 — Peggy for You — Peggy Ramsay — Harold Pinter Theatre, West End • 2003 — Thoroughly Modern Mille — Mrs Meers — Shaftesbury Theatre, West End • 2005 — Glorious! — Florence Foster Jenkins — Duchess Theatre, West End • 2008 — The Cherry Orchard — Charlotta Ivanovna — Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester • 2010 — A Little Night Music — Madame Armfeldt — Garrick Theatre, West End • 2010 — When We Are Married — Clara Soppitt — Garrick Theatre, West End • 2012 — Barefoot in the Park — Mrs. Banks — UK Tour • 2012 — Old Money — Joyce — Hampstead Theatre, London • 2014 — Daytona — Elli — Park Theatre, London • 2015 — Harvey — Veta — Birmingham Repertory Theatre, London • 2016 — My Mother Said I Never Should — Doris — St. James Theatre, London • 2017 — Lettice and Lovage — Lotte — Menier Chocolate Factory, London • 2018 — The Best Man — Mrs Gamadge — Playhouse Theatre, West End • 2023 — Rose — Rose — Ambassadors Theatre, West End • 2026 — Allegra — Allegra — UK Tour

After her husband died in May 2004, she completed his autobiography By Jack Rosenthal, and played herself in her daughter's four-part adaptation of the book, Jack Rosenthal's Last Act, on BBC Radio Four in July 2006. Her anthology, The Gibbon's In Decline But The Horse Is Stable, is a book of animal poems that is illustrated by established cartoonists, including Posy Simmonds and Gerald Scarfe, to raise money for Myeloma UK, to combat the cancer to which she lost her husband. She also wrote a monthly column for Good Housekeeping magazine for more than ten years, which formed the basis for several autobiographical books, including How Was It For You?, Something To Fall Back On, Thank You For Having Me, You Can Read Me Like A Book and Lip Reading. Lipman has also contributed a weekly column in The Guardian in the newspaper's G2 section. She writes for The Oldie and is on the editorial advisory board of Jewish Renaissance magazine.

• How Was It For You? Home thoughts from a broad, Little Brown, 1986. • Something to Fall Back On...and other pretty colourful material, Robson Books, 1987. • (with Richard Philips)You Got An Ology?, Robson Books, 1989. • Thank You For Having Me, Robson Books, 1990. • When's It Coming Out, Robson Books, 1992. • You Can Read Me Like A Book, Robson Books, 1995. • Lip Reading, Robson Books, 1999. • The Gibbon's in Decline But the Horse is Stable..., Robson Books, 2006. • Past-it Notes, Gardners Books, 2008. • I Must Collect Myself: Choice Cuts From a Long Shelf-Life, Simon & Schuster, 2010. • It's a Jungle Out There: A Lipman-Agerie, Biteback Publishing, 2016.

Lipman made an early film appearance in Up the Junction (1968). She played the title character's mother in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist (2002). In the 1999 film Solomon & Gaenor, the character she played spoke Yiddish throughout.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1968 — Up the Junction — Sylvie • 1969 — The — Sarah — AKA, School for Unclaimed Girls • 1971 — Gumshoe — Naomi • 1980 — The — Katy Higgs • 1983 — Educating Rita — Trish • 1985 — Water — Margaret Thatcher • National Lampoon's European Vacation — Lady in the bed • 1992 — Carry On Columbus — Countess Esmeralda • 1999 — Solomon & Gaenor — Rezl • Captain Jack — Barbara Bostock • 2002 — The — Edwarda Szpilman • 2003 — SuperTex — Dora Breslauer • 2004 — Lighthouse Hill — Audrey Davidson • 2008 — The — Charlie • Caught in the Act — Judith Herbst • 2012 — Run for Your Wife — Exercising woman — Cameo • Metamorphosis — Mrs. Samsa • 2020 — The Schnoz — Norma & Golda — Short film • 2024 — Our Neighbour's Ass — Ida Schumacher • 2025 — The Dog That Couldn't Bark — Rebecca • Every Day's A Bonus — Jean

• In 1994, Lipman was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Hull. • Year — Awards — Category — Nominated work — Result — Ref. • 1979 — Laurence Olivier Awards — Best Comedy Performance — Outside Edge • 1981 — British Academy Television Awards — Best Light Entertainment Performance — Agony • 1983 — Best Actress — Outside Edge / Rolling Home • Laurence Olivier Awards — Actress of the Year in a New Play — Messiah • 1984 — British Academy Film Awards — Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Educating Rita • Laurence Olivier Awards — Best Comedy Performance — See How They Run • 1986 — Best Actress in a Musical — Wonderful Town • 1998 — Best Family Show — Maureen Lipman, Live and Kicking • 2003 — Polish Film Award — Best Supporting Actress — The Pianist • 2004 — Laurence Olivier Awards — Best Actress in a Musical — Thoroughly Modern Millie • 2010 — Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical — A Little Night Music • 2019 — Inside Soap Awards — Best Newcomer — Coronation Street • 2021 — Funniest Performance • 2022 — Best Comic Performance • 2023 — Best Comic Performance • Best Partnership • The British Soap Awards — Best Comedy Performance • Best On-Screen Partnership • 2024 — Inside Soap Awards — Best Comic Performance • TV Choice Awards — Best Soap Actress • 2025 — International Festival of Cinema — Best Actress - Short — Every Day's A Bonus

Lipman was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to charity, entertainment and the arts. Accompanied by her son, Adam Rosenthal, she received her award from Charles, Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle on 28 October 2021.