Julie May Peasgood is an
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actress, television presenter, author and voice over artist known for her distinctive voice. She attended
GrimsbyGrimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
's
Wintringham SchoolOasis Academy Wintringham is a secondary school on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England. It is just the A16 Peaks Parkway just south-west of the A46 crossroads next to the Lisle Marsden CE in Wellow and on the Grimsby/Cleethorpes boundary...
as a student. She is best known for her role as Fran Pearson in the
televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
soap
BrooksideBrookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
(1991–93). She later played Jo Steadman in
EmmerdaleEmmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
in 1997, and Jacqui Hudson in
HollyoaksHollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
from 2001-2002.
Biography
Peasgood was born to working class parents from
Northern EnglandNorthern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
. 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 BoardThe National Dock Labour Board , which administered the National Dock Labour Scheme, was an administrative board for the operation of British docks.-Creation of National Dock Labour Board:...
. After leaving school she worked in a fish and chip shop in
CleethorpesCleethorpes is a town and unparished area in North East Lincolnshire, England, situated on the estuary of the Humber. It has a population of 31,853 and is a seaside resort.- History :...
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 McEneryKate McEnery is an English actress, best known for her roles as Colin Farrell's love interest in the BBC Northern Ireland series, Ballykissangel and as Jodie Nash in the Channel 4 teen soap opera Hollyoaks from 2001 to 2003. She attended Tiffin Girls' School in Surrey. She is the daughter of the...
by her first marriage to
Peter McEneryPeter McEnery is an English stage and film actor. His daughter Kate, by his first marriage to British actress Julie Peasgood, is an actress....
whom she acted opposite in Ron Daniel's
Royal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
production of
PericlesPericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
in 1979. Her marriage to McEnery made her the sister-in-law of John McEnery and
Stephanie BeachamStephanie Beacham is a British television, film and theatre actress. Making her film debut in 1971's The Nightcomers opposite Marlon Brando and becoming more well-known on British television in the BBC series Tenko and the ITV series Connie , her worldwide breakthrough came as a result of playing...
.
Acting career
Peasgood was with the RSC for five years, starring in the original production of Nicholas Nickleby directed by
Trevor NunnSir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
. She was also in the production of
Inadmissible EvidenceInadmissible Evidence is a play written by John Osborne in November 1964. It was also filmed in 1968.The protagonist of the play is William Maitland, a middle-aged English solicitor who has come to hate his entire life. Much of the play consists of lengthy monologues in which Maitland tells the...
, directed by
John OsborneJohn James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
at the Royal Court, and has performed at The Old Vic, the Manchester Royal Exchange, The Orange Tree and the West End.
On television she is probably most recognised for the roles of Fran Pearson in
BrooksideBrookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
and Jo Steadman in
EmmerdaleEmmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
. However, she has appeared in numerous other television series. Among her other credits include appearances in
HollyoaksHollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
where she played Jacqui Hudson,
First BornFirst Born is a British television serial produced by the BBC in 1988.Charles Dance starred as genetic researcher Edward Forester, whose work leads him to create a man-gorilla hybrid, using his own sperm and cells taken from a female gorilla...
,
September Song,
TaggartTaggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
,
A Woman's Guide to Adultery,
Cherryripe and the Lugworm Digger,
Carla Lane's Luv,
Doctors,
The BillThe Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
,
Holby CityHolby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...
,
Chains of Love"Chains of Love" was a single released from singer Terry Ronald's 1991 album Roma. The single was released in February 1991.-Track listing:This is the track listing from the released single.European CD single# "Chains of Love"...
,
SpenderSpender is a BBC television drama set in Newcastle upon Tyne, written by Ian La Frenais and Jimmy Nail, who also starred. The series was produced by Martin McKeand . The series was broadcast on BBC between 1991 and 1993...
,
Ruth Rendell's Simisola,
Dancers,
This Year, Next Year, the original 1970s series of
Survivors,
BoonBoon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...
and
Small WorldSmall world is a 1988 TV miniseries based on David Lodge's novel of the same name.- Cast :* Stephen Moore - Philip Swallow* John Ratzenberger - Morris Zapp* Sarah Badel - Hilary Swallow* Rachel Kempson - Miss Maiden* Finbar Lynch - Persse McGarrigle...
.
She appeared in the 1983 horror film
House of the Long ShadowsHouse of the Long Shadows is a horror-parody film directed by Pete Walker. The screenplay by Michael Armstrong is based on the novel Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers. The original music score is composed by Richard Harvey....
, which starred
Peter CushingPeter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
,
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
and
Christopher LeeSir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
.
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 SimpsonRay Galton OBE , and Alan Simpson OBE , are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based...
's
Impasse on
BBC Radio 2BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, in which she played Mrs Spooner, opposite
Mitchell and WebbMitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, comprising David Mitchell and Robert Webb . They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show....
. She also played the leading role of Shirley in
Venus to Go on
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
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 WomenLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
,
This MorningThis Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
,
Wish You Were Here...?Wish You Were Here...? is a British television show that was first broadcast on 7th January 1974 on ITV. It was a series of 30 minute shows about travel and holidays. The show was broadcast during peak viewing hours and had gained a significant viewing audience in the UK...
,
The Alan Titchmarsh ShowThe Alan Titchmarsh Show is a British daytime TV chat show broadcast between 3 and 4pm weekdays on the ITV Network.-Format:The programme made its debut on ITV in 2007. It focused on the theme of "The Best of British" focusing on food, entertainment and celebrities in a mid-afternoon slot...
,
Turf Wars on
UKTV StyleHome is an interior home and garden-oriented lifestyle television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom, as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel originally launched on 1 November 1997 and relaunched in it's current format on 30 April 2009...
, 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: UnificationMartian Gothic: Unification is a survival horror game for the PlayStation and PC. It was developed by Creative Reality and published by Take-Two Interactive. Programmers Neil Dodwell and Martin Wong, designer Stephen Marley, animator David Dew, modelers Julian Holtom and Paul Oglesby, and music &...
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 FairThe London Book Fair is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. The London Book Fair has grown in size and importance in recent years, and 23,000 publishers, booksellers, literary agents, librarians, media and industry suppliers from over 100...
on 16 April 2007 and went on to earn her Best Sex Writer Award from Scarlet Magazine. She currently has two regular magazine columns and writes for a variety of newspapers, magazines and websites.
Peasgood is also a public speaker and events host.
Filmography
| 2007- |
The Alan Titchmarsh ShowThe Alan Titchmarsh Show is a British daytime TV chat show broadcast between 3 and 4pm weekdays on the ITV Network.-Format:The programme made its debut on ITV in 2007. It focused on the theme of "The Best of British" focusing on food, entertainment and celebrities in a mid-afternoon slot...
|
Sexpert/Discussion Contributor |
| 2008 |
Cash in the Celebrity Attic |
Herself |
| 2008 |
Doctors |
Eleanor Warden |
| 2007 |
The Bill The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
|
Dawn Collins |
| 2006 |
Doctors |
Ruth Farrell |
| 2004 |
Can't Buy Me Love |
Janice |
| 2004 |
Holby City Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...
|
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 (uncredited) |
| 2001 |
Live TalkLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
|
Panellist |
| 2001 |
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...
|
Herself |
| 2000 |
Holby City |
Maddy Moorcroft |
| 2000–2001 |
HollyoaksHollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
|
Jacqui Hudson |
| 2000 |
Martian Gothic: Unification Martian Gothic: Unification is a survival horror game for the PlayStation and PC. It was developed by Creative Reality and published by Take-Two Interactive. Programmers Neil Dodwell and Martin Wong, designer Stephen Marley, animator David Dew, modelers Julian Holtom and Paul Oglesby, and music &...
|
Harroway |
| 1999 |
Come Home For Christmas (Meridian TV) |
Herself |
| 1998 |
My Favourite Hymns |
Herself |
| 1997 |
EmmerdaleEmmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
|
Jo Steadman |
| 1997 |
Give Us a Clue Give Us a Clue is a British televised game show version of charades which was broadcast on ITV from 1979 to 1992. The original host was Michael Aspel from 1979 to 1983, followed by Michael Parkinson from 1984 to 1992. The show featured two teams, one captained by Lionel Blair and the other by Una...
|
Herself (team captain) |
| 1996 |
Ruth Rendell Mysteries |
Cookie Dix |
| 1995 |
Men of the World |
Mandy |
| 1995 |
Bugs Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers...
|
Lena |
| 1995 |
The Bill |
Mrs Parsons |
| 1994 |
The Good Sex Guide |
Herself |
| 1994 |
The Late Show |
Herself |
| 1994 |
Murder Most HorridMurder Most Horrid is a BBC dark comedy anthology series starring comedian Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999....
|
Waitress |
| 1994 |
Chandler & Co Chandler and Co was a UK television programme, made 1993–96, about two female private detectives. It starred Catherine Russell as Elly Chandler. Her partner was played by Barbara Flynn in the first series by Susan Fleetwood in the second....
|
Carmen Talbot |
| 1993–1994 |
Carla Lane's Luv |
Eden |
| 1993 |
Newshound |
Herself |
| 1993 |
A Woman's Guide to Adultery |
Sandra |
| 1993 |
Taggart Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
|
Michelle Duncan |
| 1993 |
September Song |
Roxy |
| 1993 |
The 10 Percenters The Ten Percenters was a British television comedy series, broadcast on ITV, which began as a pilot in 1993 , and was followed by two series which were shown in 1994 and 1996...
|
Trudy |
| 1991–1993 |
BrooksideBrookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
|
Fran Pearson |
| 1991 |
2point4 Children2point4 Children is a 1990s British sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porter family; an average family that is persistently faced with surreal situations and sheer bad luck....
|
Pauline |
| 1991 |
Perfect Scoundrels |
Nelly |
| 1991 |
Spender Spender is a BBC television drama set in Newcastle upon Tyne, written by Ian La Frenais and Jimmy Nail, who also starred. The series was produced by Martin McKeand . The series was broadcast on BBC between 1991 and 1993...
|
Booney ( |
| 1991 |
Van der Valk |
Christina Molders |
| 1990 |
BoonBoon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...
|
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 House of the Long Shadows is a horror-parody film directed by Pete Walker. The screenplay by Michael Armstrong is based on the novel Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers. The original music score is composed by Richard Harvey....
|
Mary Norton |
| 1982 |
Play for Today: Whistling Wally |
Kath |
| 1979 |
Everyday Maths |
|
| 1978 |
The Law Centre |
|
| 1978 |
BBC 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 |
External links