Join Maureen talking to Christopher Biggins about her long standing and memorable career through anecdotes and stories.
Maureen Lipman is a prolific British actress, comedian, columnist and writer. She was born in Hull and Her first performances at home included impersonations of Alma Cogan “a nice Jewish girl, she was big in our house”, and she was encouraged into an acting career by her mother, who used to take her to the pantomime and encourage her onto the stage.
Maureen trained at LAMDA and following her training she joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at the Old Vic for two years. She then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for a season and has subsequently had a successful and extensive career on screen, television and radio.
She made an early film appearance in 1968 in Up The Junction, then continued to grace our screen in sitcoms such as The Lovers and Doctors at Large, but it was her role in sitcom Agony that gave Maureen more prominence.
In 1985, Lipman won an Olivier Award for playing Miss Skillion in See How They Run and two years later created the memorable Beatrice Bellman (BT), a Jewish Grandmother in a series of television commercials for British Telecom which invented the phrase ‘You Got An Ology’.
She notably, played Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! at the National Theatre and her other West End credits include Glorious! at the Duchess Theatre, When We Are Married at the Garrick Theatre, Daytona at Theatre Royal Haymarket, The Best Man at the Playhouse Theatre.
In 2018 she made her first appearance on Coronation Street as the formidable Evelyn Plummer and won the award for “Best Newcomer” at The Inside Soap Award in 2019. In 2023, she won the award for Best Comedy Performance at The British Soap Awards.
In 2020, she appeared in a streamed revival of Martin Sherman’s Rose, which went on to be screened on Sky Arts. Rose was then presented at Hope Mill Theatre and Park Theatre in 2022 and then transferred to The Ambassador’s in the West End in 2023, which she received critical acclaim.
Lipman was appointed a CBE in 1999 and a DBE in the 2020 for services to charity, entertainment and the arts.
