Biography

Peasgood was born to working class parents from Northern England. Her mother had started work as a tightrope walker and juggler in Bertram Mills Circus. There she had met her father, who was a welfare officer for the Grimsby Dock Labour Board. After leaving school she worked in a fish and chip shop in Cleethorpes before training at the Arts Educational School in Golden Lane, London. She left the school shortly before her course finished to take the title role in 'Cherryripe and the Lugworm Digger', which was the first in the series 'Seven Faces of Woman' for ITV.

She is the mother of the actress Kate McEnery by her first marriage to Peter McEnery, whom she acted opposite in Ron Daniel's Royal Shakespeare Company production of Pericles in 1979. She has been married since 1998 to actor Patrick Pearson.

Acting career

Peasgood was with the RSC for five years, where she played the role of Tilda (Matilda) Price in the original production of Nicholas Nickleby directed by Trevor Nunn. She was also in the production of Inadmissible Evidence, directed by John Osborne at the Royal Court, and has performed at the Old Vic, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, the Orange Tree and the West End.

On television she is probably most recognised for the roles of Fran Pearson in Brookside and Jo Steadman in Emmerdale. However, she has appeared in numerous other television series. Among her other credits include appearances in Hollyoaks where she played Jacqui Hudson, First Born, September Song, Taggart, A Woman's Guide to Adultery, Cherryripe and the Lugworm Digger, Carla Lane's Luv, Doctors, The Bill, Holby City, 4 Play, Spender, Ruth Rendell's Simisola, Dancers, This Year, Next Year, the original 1970s series of Survivors, Boon and Small World.

She appeared in the 1983 horror film House of the Long Shadows, which starred Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

She started to do voice overs in the 1980s, and has voiced several hundred television and radio commercials. She is perhaps most well known in this role for a 1990s advert for Bird's Eye Frozen Peas. In 2003, Peasgood was known as the "queen of the ad voice overs".

On radio she has appeared in Galton and Simpson's Impasse on BBC Radio 2, in which she played Mrs Spooner, opposite Mitchell and Webb. She also played the leading role of Shirley in Venus to Go on BBC Radio 4.

Presenting career

Peasgood is also a TV presenter, and won the Royal Television Society's TV Personality of the Year Award in 2004, for her series Great Little Breaks. Other credits include Bootsale Challenge, Loose Women, This Morning, Wish You Were Here...?, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, Turf Wars on UKTV Style and A Buyer's Guide to Spain on Real Estate TV which she wrote, directed and presented with her husband actor Patrick Pearson.

Other work

She contributed a vocal performance to Creative Reality's survival horror videogame Martian Gothic: Unification which was released in 2000. She later spoke out against violent video games, emphasising their negative effects, and attracted some criticism due to her contribution to Martian Gothic.

Her first book, The Greatest Sex Tips in the World, was launched at the London Book Fair on 16 April 2007 and went on to earn her Best Sex Writer Award from Scarlet Magazine. She currently has two regular magazine columns, is Contributing Editor of Cruise International magazine and writes about travel for a number of newspapers, magazines and websites.

Peasgood is also a public speaker and events host.

Filmography

2013	PaversShoes TV (UK)	Presenter
2012	Travel Channel (UK)	Presenter
2011	The Wright Stuff	Panellist
2007-	The Alan Titchmarsh Show	Sexpert/Discussion Contributor
2008	Cash in the Celebrity Attic	Herself
2008	Doctors	Eleanor Warden
2007	The Bill	Dawn Collins
2006	Doctors	Ruth Farrell
2004	Can't Buy Me Love	Janice
2004	Holby City	Julie Sweeny
2003	Good Food Live	Herself: Guest host
2001	An Audience with Des O'Connor	Herself (uncredited)
2001	Doctors	Mel
2001	Esther	Herself
2001	Hollyoaks: Indecent Behaviour	Jacqui Hudson
2001	Live Talk	Panellist
2001	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?	Herself
2000	Holby City	Maddy Moorcroft
2000-2001	Hollyoaks	Jacqui Hudson
2000	Martian Gothic: Unification	Harroway
1999	Come Home For Christmas (Meridian TV)	Herself
1998	My Favourite Hymns	Herself
1997	Emmerdale	Jo Steadman
1997	Give Us a Clue	Herself (team captain)
1996	Ruth Rendell Mysteries	Cookie Dix
1995	Men of the World	Mandy
1995	Bugs	Lena
1995	The Bill	Mrs Parsons
1994	The Good Sex Guide	Herself
1994	The Late Show	Herself
1994	Murder Most Horrid	Waitress
1994	Chandler & Co	Carmen Talbot
1993-1994	Luv	Eden
1993	Newshound	Herself
1993	A Woman's Guide to Adultery	Sandra
1993	Taggart	Michelle Duncan
1993	September Song	Roxy
1993	The 10 Percenters	Trudy
1991-1993	Brookside	Fran Pearson
1991	2point4 Children	Pauline
1991	Perfect Scoundrels	Nelly
1991	Spender	Booney
1991	Van der Valk	Christina Molders
1990	Boon	Sue Harper
1989	Alas Smith & Jones
1989	4 Play: Chains of Love	Hazel
1988	Brush Strokes	Jane
1988	First Born	Anne Forester
1988	Small World	Cheryl Summerbee
1986	A Dangerous Kind of Love
1985	The Optimist	Mimi
1983	House of the Long Shadows	Mary Norton
1982	Play for Today: Whistling Wally	Kath
1979	Everyday Maths
1978	The Law Centre
1978	Play of the Month: The Beaux' Stratagem	Cherry
1978	The Lake	Barbara
1977	This Year Next Year	Kath Shaw
1976	Clayhanger	Ada
1975	Survivors	Judy
1975	Five Red Herrings	Fenella Strachan
1975	The Romantic Englishwoman	New Nanny
1975	Sadie, It's Cold Outside	Cashier
1975	A Journey to London	Miss Betty Headpiece
1974	Seven Faces of Woman	Gaye Kingdom

[ Source: Wikipedia ]