Early life

Hodge was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. The daughter of the Royal Hotel owner/manager Eric and his wife Marion (née Phillips), Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St. Helen's School, Northwood, Middlesex; before attending Maria Grey College (became West London Institute of Higher Education in 1976 then the Twickenham campus of Brunel University from 1995-2005), Twickenham to train as a teacher. She taught English and drama at Russell County Primary School in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, whilst also applying to London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She started at LAMDA when she was 22, being awarded on graduation the Eveline Evans Award for Best Actress.

Career

After graduation, she concentrated on theatre work and 18 months later worked with Bob Fosse on Pippin. However, she found when applying for television work she had become classed as a theatre actress. Having made the break-through in the role of Phyllida (Trant) Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey, she found when trying to make the occasional return to theatre work that she had been classed as a television actress. Finding the need to have a flexible career to care for her young children, Hodge made the decision to focus her career on the stage, and hence is mainly seen on television in focus parts and singular roles in-between chosen different theatre roles.

She has appeared in roles as diverse as in The Naked Civil Servant opposite John Hurt, shortly after she featured in the BBC's 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2 starring Julie Covington, Bernard Cribbins and Paul Jones. It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977 She featured as Myra Arundel in the 1984 BBC version of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, as Margaret Thatcher in The Falklands Play, and in 2007 as Betty, the wife of tycoon Robert Maxwell, in the BBC TV drama Maxwell opposite David Suchet. She took the female lead in the 1983 film, Betrayal (based on Harold Pinter's play Betrayal), a roman à clef derived from the playwright's affair with broadcaster Joan Bakewell.

She co-starred with Dame Judi Dench in the 1995 London revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music as Countess Charlotte Malcom.

She was nominated for a BAFTA for her role in a television adaptation of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac in 1987, and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the production of Money at the Royal National Theatre. Hodge is an Honorary Graduate (DLitt) of Brunel University and one of the founder members of the Brunel Club. Since 2009, she has played a comedy role in the BBC sitcom Miranda, as the mother of the eponymous main character. She is joint President of Grimsby's Caxton Theatre.

Personal life

Hodge married music publisher Peter Douglas Owen on 31 July 1976 in Tonbridge. The couple have two sons: Alexander Richard Charles (born March 1989); and Edward Frederick James (born January 1992).

Filmography

Television

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Downton Abbey	Mrs Mirada Pelham	2015 Christmas Special
2014	You Can't Get The Staff	Narrator
2013	Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Big Four	Madame Olivier
2009-2015	Miranda	Penny	20 episodes
2007	Maxwell	Betty Maxwell
2007	Hustle	Veronica Powell
2006	Agatha Christie's Marple	Mrs. Evadne Willett	"The Sittaford Mystery"
2003	Sweet Medicine	Georgina Sweet
2002	Waking the Dead	Lady Alice Beatty	episodes: "Special Relationship part 1&2"
2002	The Falklands Play	Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher MP (Prime Minister)
1996	The Legacy of Reginald Perrin	Geraldine Hackstraw
1992	The Cloning of Joanna May	Joanna May
1991	Rich Tea and Sympathy	Julia Merrygrove
1989	Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming	Lady Evelyn
1989	Victoria Wood	Moira	episode: "Staying In"
1989	The Shell Seekers	Olivia
1989	Inspector Morse	Lady Hanbury	episode: "Ghost in the Machine"
1988	Heat of the Day	Stella
1986	Hotel du Lac	Monica
1986	Robin of Sherwood	Queen Hadwisa	episode: "The Pretender"
1986	The Return of Sherlock Holmes	Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope	"The Second Stain"
1986	The Life and Loves of a She-Devil	Mary Fisher
1986	The Death of the Heart	Anna Quayne
1985	Time for Murder	Margaret Tutting	"Dust to Dust"
1984	Hay Fever	Myra Arundel
1983	Jemima Shore Investigates	Jemima Shore
1981-1982	Nanny	Dorinda Sackville
1981	Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years	Lady Londonderry
1980-1982	Holding the Fort	Penny Milburn
1980-1981	The Other 'Arf	Sybilla Howarth
1979	The Professionals	Ann Holly	episode: "Involvement"
1978	Edward and Mrs Simpson	Lady Diana Cooper
1978-1992	Rumpole of the Bailey	Phyllida Erskine-Brown
1975	Great Big Groovy Horse
1975	The Naked Civil Servant	Ballet Teacher
1975	The Girls of Slender Means	Anne Baberton

Films

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	N-Day	Susan Jennings
2002	Before You Go	Violet Mary Heaney
1988	Just Ask for Diamond	Betty Charlady / Brenda von Falkenberg
1988	Thieves in the Night
1988	Sunset	Christina Alperin
1985	Behind Enemy Lines	Elizabeth Beaumont
1983	Betrayal	Emma
1981	Riding High	Miss Hemmings
1980	The Elephant Man	Screaming Mum
1978	The Waterloo Bridge Handicap	Gossiping Girl
1978	Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse	Sister Belter
1977	The Disappearance	Young Wife

Stage

• No-One Was Saved, 1971
• Rookery Nook, 1972
• Popkiss, 1972
• Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1973
• Pippin, 1973
• Hair, 1974
• The Beggar's Opera, 1975
• Pal Joey, 1976
• Look Back in Anger, 1976
• Then and Now, 1979
• The Mitford Girls, 1981
• As You Like It, 1983
• Benefactors, 1984
• Lady in the Dark, 1988
• Noël and Gertie, 1989-90
• Shades, 1992
• Separate Tables, 1993
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1994
• A Little Night Music, 1995
• Money, 1999-2000
• Summerfolk, 1999-2000
• Noises Off, 2001-02
• His Dark Materials, 2003-04
• Dream Me a Winter, 2006 (part of the Old Vic's '24 Hour Plays')
• Boeing Boeing, 2007
• The Country Wife, 2007-08
• The Clean House, 2008
• Calendar Girls, 2008-09
• The Breath of Life, 2011
• Dandy Dick, 2012
• Relative Values, 2013-14

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Result
1981	Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical	The Mitford Girls	Nominated
1987	BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress	Hotel du Lac	Nominated
1990	Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical	Noel and Gertie	Nominated
2000	Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress	Money	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]