Content Valley star Sarah Lancashire: From humble beginnings to becoming lauded as UK’s ‘Meryl Streep’

Sarah Lancashire graced our tv screens very last evening as matriarch Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the opening episode of the 3rd and remaining series of Content Valley.

The a great deal-predicted return of Sally Wainwright’s gripping law enforcement drama opened to 5-star testimonials as viewers rejoiced that ‘Sarah Lancashire is back on our screens’.

Set in West Yorkshire’s Calder Valley, her character performs a no-nonsense law enforcement officer battling crime in her neighborhood, when also battling her personal particular demons.

The multi-award successful demonstrate has attained Lancashire legions of admiring supporters, with some likening her to Britian’s Meryl Streep, with some others have hailed Catherine Cawood as ‘the greatest feminine character to have graced television’. 

Sarah Lancashire graced our tv screens previous night time as matriarch Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the third and final sequence of Pleased Valley

Lancashire rose to fame as a nationwide treasure on soap Coronation Avenue, wherever she played ditzy barmaid Raquel Wolstenhulme from 1991 to 1996

Lancashire rose to fame as a nationwide treasure on soap Coronation Avenue, exactly where she played ditzy barmaid Raquel Wolstenhulme from 1991 to 1996

She has gone on to look in The place the Coronary heart Is, Very last Tango in Halifax, Kiri, The Incident and most not too long ago as Television set chef Julia Little one in the HBO sequence Julia – also successful her enthusiasts across the pond.

But the Oldham-born actor, 58, came from humble beginnings, and before her ‘big break’ in performing starred in community theatre productions and worked as a drama trainer to remain afloat economically ahead of careers.

Born in 1964, her father Geoffrey was a Television scriptwriter and her mom Hilda worked as his private assistant. 

Sarah Lancashire starring together with Billy Connolly in Gentleman’s Relish

Sarah Lancashire starring as Television chef and writer Julia Youngster in the HBO series Julia

As a teen, Lancashire experienced tiny desire in acting and initially established out to operate driving the scenes in television.

At the age of 18, she received a area at the Guildhall College of Songs and Drama the place her passion for acting was ignited.

She graduated in 1986 and – just after currently being turned down from numerous repertory theatres – she was presented her first function by Howard Lloyd-Lewis, director of the Manchester Library Theatre Firm.

She starred in two plays – Pacific Overtures and the Magnificence Activity – describing this period as ‘the start of my profession as an actor’.

Sarah Lancashire performed Polly Bevan in Channel 4’s 4-part sequence The Accident

Irrespective of aspirations to hit the major time, for the duration of her early career she identified significant gaps in between theatre appearances and worked as a drama trainer to stay afloat economically. 

But factors were about to modify. In 1990 Lancashire obtained her ‘big break’ playing the part of Linda in a creation of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers at the Albery Theatre in London’s West Finish. 

Two weeks after finishing her operate in Blood Brothers, Lancashire auditioned to participate in Raquel Wolstenhulme in Coronation Street, the place she would star as colleague of supermarket worker Curly Watts, performed by Kevin Kennedy.

Sarah Lancashire as Raquel Wolstenhulme in Corrie, with her Curly Watts (performed by Kevin Kennedy)

Sarah Lancashire performed social worker Miriam in Channel 4’s Kiri

Just after a modelling stint, her character went onto to become the considerably-loved ditzy barmaid of the Rover’s Return – and would go on to have a unsuccessful romance with Weatherfield’s resident lothario Des Barnes.

She went onto marry Curly turning into Raquel Watts but walked out on him in 1996 to pursue an aromatherapy job in Kuala Lumpur.

Adhering to her exit from Corrie, Lancashire joined the solid of ITV’s Wherever The Coronary heart in which she performed the function of district nurse Ruth Goddard.

Much to the viewers’ delight, she returned to Weatherfield as Raquel one last time in 2000 in the course of a New Year’s exclusive to desire a divorce from Curly so she could marry her French lover. 

Lancashire as Raquel with Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy) in Coronation Street in 1994

Content Valley received a Bafta for very best drama and Lancashire for greatest actress in 2017

That same calendar year, she became the very first actress to signed a £1.3 million ‘golden handcuffs’ offer with ITV, that means that for two yrs she could could only star in ITV productions.

At that stage, the deal created Lancashire the optimum paid out actress in British tv.

In the a long time next her ITV offer, she starred in numerous plays and films, including The Bill, Wuthering Heights, Health practitioner Who, Gentlemen’s Relish, Skins and Dad’s Military.

When Delighted Valley initially strike screens in 2014, the show was an quick success, gripping a lot more than eight million viewers and profitable Baftas for Greatest Drama and Finest Composing.

Elevating her grandson Ryan just after the suicide of her daughter Becky, Sergeant Catherine Cawood ought to hold him harmless from his organic father, neighborhood villain Tommy Lee Royce, performed by McMafia star James Norton.

The next sequence also noticed Lancashire earn a Bafta for most effective actress, and in the exact 12 months she was awarded an OBE for her solutions to drama. 

Almost 7 many years immediately after the preceding collection of Pleased Valley finished, the grandmother performed by Sarah Lancashire is even now keeping back the tide of drugs and violence in her West Yorkshire town. 

No question tipped for additional awards when the 6-element series will come to an conclude, her portrayal of Catherine Cawood has also attained her a faithful fanbase across the pond immediately after the display streamed on Netflix in the US.

Lancashire rose to fame as a nationwide treasure on cleaning soap Coronation Street, where she performed ditzy barmaid Raquel Wolstenhulme from 1991 to 1996

James Norton (pictured) plays regional villain Tommy Lee Royce in the hit BBC clearly show alongshire Sarah Lancashire

Three sequence of Delighted Valley had been often prepared with just one and two aired just two many years aside from every other.

Wainwright and Lancashire usually planned for a gap involving the closing collection – to let time for the characters to develop – but significantly to viewers’ annoyance the Covid-19 pandemic extra an additional calendar year on to the hold out.

The opening of Delighted Valley’s final series aired on New Year’s Day was praised for recapturing the magic of the ‘revolutionary’ programme as it garnered 5-star opinions throughout the board.