Lynda Bellingham

Biography

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.

Most Known For

Midsomer Murders

as Jane Willows

Doctor Who

as The Inquisitor

Casualty

as Steph Yates

Wogan

as Self

Waking the Dead

as Mary Mantel

All Creatures Great and Small

as Helen Herriot

The Professionals

as Betty Hope

The Alan Titchmarsh Show

as Self

New Tricks

Loose Women

as Self

The Sweeney

as Nancy King

Robin Hood

Dalziel & Pascoe

Z-Cars

Blake's 7

as Vena

Screen Two

as Mary Morris

An Audience with...

as Self

Shoestring

as Nicola

Angels

Surprise, Surprise

as Self