Early life and career

Collins was born in Exmouth, Devon, the daughter of Mary Honora (née Callanan), a schoolteacher, and William Henry Collins, a school headmaster. She is of Irish extraction, and was brought up as a Roman Catholic near Liverpool.Her great-uncle was Irish poet Jeremiah Joseph Callanan.

Collins was educated at Sacred Heart High School. and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Before turning to acting, she worked as a teacher until 1962. She made her stage debut at Windsor in A Gazelle in Park Lane in 1962 and her West End debut in Passion Flower Hotel in 1965, (during this run, very hurriedly, her first film Secrets of a Windmill Girl -1966). More stage roles followed.

Collins played Samantha Briggs in the 1967 Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones and was offered the chance to continue in the series as a new companion for the Doctor, but declined the invitation.

Other early TV credits include the UK's first medical soap Emergency - Ward 10 (1960), and the pilot episode and first series of The Liver Birds, both in 1969.

Collins first became well known for her role as the maid Sarah in the 1970s ITV drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. The character appeared regularly throughout the first two series, the second of which also starred her actor husband, John Alderton, with whom she later starred in a spin-off, Thomas & Sarah (1979), and the sitcom No, Honestly written by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham, as well as in a series of short story adaptations called Wodehouse Playhouse (1975-78). She co-narrated the animated British children's TV series Little Miss with husband John Alderton in 1983.

In connection with her Upstairs, Downstairs role, Collins recorded a 1973 single for Decca: What Are We Going to Do with Uncle Arthur? (performed by her character several times during the series) b/w With Every Passing Day (a vocal version of the show's theme).

Shirley Valentine and recent years

In 1988, Collins starred in the one-woman play Shirley Valentine in London, reprising the role on Broadway in 1989 and in the 1989 film version. The film won a number of awards and nominations.

After Shirley Valentine, Collins again starred alongside her husband in the popular ITV drama series Forever Green created and written by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham in which the fictitious couple escape the city with their children to start a new life in the country. It ran from 1989 to 1992 over 18 episodes.

Collins' film credits include City of Joy (1992, co-starring Patrick Swayze), My Mother's Courage (1995 in Germany as Mutters Courage, released in the USA in 1997), Paradise Road (1997, with Glenn Close and Cate Blanchett), and Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War (2002), another appearance with Alderton. In 1999 and 2000, Collins starred as Harriet Smith in the BBC television drama Ambassador, where she played the lead role of the British ambassador to Ireland. Other television credits include The Saint, The Wednesday Play, Armchair Theatre, Play for Today, Tales of the Unexpected, Country Matters and The Black Tower.

In 2002, she guest starred in Man and Boy, the dramatisation of Tony Parsons' best-seller. In 2005 she appeared as Miss Flite in the BBC production of Charles Dickens' Bleak House.

In 2006, she became only the third actor to have been in both the original and new series of Doctor Who, appearing in the episode "Tooth and Claw" as Queen Victoria.

Later in 2006, she appeared in Extinct, a programme where eight celebrities campaigned on behalf of an animal to save it from extinction. Collins campaigned to save the Bengal tiger and won the public vote.

In December 2007, she appeared as the fairy godmother in the pantomime Cinderella at the Old Vic in London.

In 2011, she was cast as part of Sky 1's new comedy-drama Mount Pleasant. She played the role of Sue, Lisa's mum, in the first two series running into 2012. She didn't return to the third series in 2013, and her character was killed off in the fourth series in 2014.

Collins was appointed OBE in 2001.

Personal life

She married actor John Alderton in 1969 and lives in Hampstead, London, with her husband and their three children, Nicholas, Kate and Richard. She also has an older daughter with actor Tony Rohr, Louise, whom she gave up for adoption. They were reunited when Louise was 22 years old.

TV and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1963	Emergency - Ward 10	Nurse Elliott	Phil Brown	TV Series (1 Episode)
1966	Secrets of a Windmill Girl	Pat Lord	Arnold L. Miller
	The Marriage Lines	Jean	Robin Nash	TV Series (1 Episode : "Big Business")
	Pardon the Expression	Miss Wainwright / Val	Michael Cox	TV Series (3 Episodes)
	The Corridor People	Syrie's maid	David Boisseau	TV Series (1 Episode : "Victim as Black")
	Theatre 625	Clara	James Ferman	TV Series (1 Episode : "Amerika")
	The Saint	Marie-Therese	Gordon Flemyng	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Better Mousetrap")
	Blackmail	Freida Straker		TV Series (1 Episode : "Please Do Not Disturb")
	The Three Musketeers	Kitty	Peter Hammond	TV (1 Episode : "Branded")
	The Making of Jericho			TV film
1967	Doctor Who	Samantha Briggs	Gerry Mill	The Faceless Ones (6 Episodes)
	Softly, Softly	Marilyn	Bill Hays	TV Series (1 Episode : "Somebody Important")
1968	B and B	Chantal		TV Series (1 Episode : "Pilot: B and B")
	Armchair Theatre	Betty / Mary Murtagh	Guy Verney Marc Miller	TV Series (2 Episodes)
1969	The Old Campaigner	Winnie Haldane		TV Series (1 Episode : "French Farce")
	Comedy Playhouse	Dawn / Marjorie		TV Series (2 Episodes)
	The Liver Birds	Dawn		TV Series (5 Episodes)
	The Wednesday Play	Angelina / Joan Percival	Marc Miller (X2) John Mackenzie	TV Series (2 Episodes)
	Parkin's Patch	Doreen Ashworth	Raymond Menmuir	TV Series (1 Episode : "A Pair of Good Shoes")
1970	The Mating Machine	Elizabeth	Howard Ross	TV Series (1 Episode : "Who Sleeps on the Right?")
1972	Thirty-Minute Theatre	The Girl	Gilchrist Calder	TV Series (1 Episode : "King's Cross Lunch Hour")
	Country Matters	Ruby		TV Mini-Series (1 Episode : "Crippled Bloom")
1971-1973	Upstairs, Downstairs	Sarah Moffat	Various directors	TV Series (13 Episodes) Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
1973	Armchair 30	Carol	Piers Haggard	TV Series (1 Episode : "Carol's Story")
1974	No, Honestly	Clara Burrell-Danby	David Askey	TV Series (13 Episodes)
1975	BBC Play of the Month	Lady Teazle	Stuart Burge	TV Series (1 Episode : "The School for Scandal")
1975-1976	Wodehouse Playhouse	Various characters	Various directors	TV Series (13 Episodes)
1979	Thomas & Sarah	Sarah Moffat	Various directors	TV Series (13 Episodes)
	Play for Today	Eileen	Stephen Frears	TV Series (1 Episode : "Long Distance Information")
1980	Tales of the Unexpected	Pat Lewis	Graham Evans	TV Series (1 Episode : "A Girl Can't Always Have Everything")
1983	Little Misses and the Mr. Men	Narrator	Trevor Bond Terry Ward	TV Series
1984	Knockback	Sylvia	Piers Haggard (X2)	TV Movie Nominated - CableACE Awards for Best Actress in a Theatrical or Dramatic Special
1985	Tropical Moon Over Dorking	Myra	Robert Chetwyn	TV Movie
	The Black Tower	Maggie Hewson	Ronald Wilson	TV Mini-Series (5 Episodes)
1988	Tales of the Unexpected	Eve Peregrine	Barry Davis	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Colonel's Lady")
1989-1992	Forever Green	Harriet Boult	David Giles Sarah Hellings Christopher King	TV Series (18 Episodes)
1989	Shirley Valentine	Shirley Valentine-Bradshaw	Lewis Gilbert	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Evening Standard British Film Awards - Best Actress Golden Apple Award - Female Discovery of the Year Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1992	City of Joy	Joan Bethel	Roland Joffé
1995	My Mother's Courage	Elsa Tabori	Michael Verhoeven
1996	Flowers of the Forest	Aileen Matthews	Michael Whyte	TV Movie
1997	Paradise Road	Daisy 'Margaret' Drummond	Bruce Beresford
1998-1999	The Ambassador	Harriet Smith	Various directors	TV Series (13 Episodes)
2000	Little Grey Rabbit		Jean Flynn	TV Series
	One Life Stand	Karaoke Crowd	May Miles Thomas
2002	Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War	Thelma Caldicot	Ian Sharp
	Man and Boy	Betty Silver	Simon Curtis	TV Movie
2003	Sparkling Cyanide	Dr. Catherine Kendall	Tristram Powell	TV Movie
2005	Bleak House	Maud Havisham Flite	Justin Chadwick Susanna White	TV Series (10 Episodes)
2006	Doctor Who	Queen Victoria	Euros Lyn	TV Series (1 Episode : "Tooth and Claw")
	What We Did on Our Holiday	Lil Taylor	Jeremy Webb	TV Movie
2009	From Time to Time	Mrs. Tweedie	Julian Fellowes
2010	Agatha Christie's Marple	Thyrza Grey	Andy Hay	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Pale Horse")
	Merlin	Alice	Alice Troughton	TV Series (1 Episode : "Love in the Time of Dragons")
	You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger	Cristal	Woody Allen
2011	Albert Nobbs	Margaret 'Madge' Baker	Rodrigo García
2011-2012	Mount Pleasant	Sue	Dewi Humphreys Ian Barnes Dermot Boyd	TV Series (14 Episodes)
2012	Quartet	Cissy Robson	Dustin Hoffman
2015	Dough	Joanna	John Goldschmidt	Post-Production
	The Time of Their Lives	Priscilla	Roger Goldby	Pre-Production
2015-2016	Dickensian	Mrs Gamp	Tony Jordan Various Tony Jordan	TV Series (20 Episodes)

Awards and nominations

• Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress (winner)
• Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (winner)
• Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut (winner)
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (winner)
• Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (winner)
• Academy Award for Best Actress (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, Comedy or Musical (nominee)
• BAFTA for Best Film Actress (winner)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]