Dame Maureen Lipman in conversation with Christopher Biggins

Information

Maureen Lipman is a prolific British actress, comedian, columnist, and writer. She trained at LAMDA, following which she joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at the Old Vic for two years. Subsequently she has had a hugely 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.

Other theatre includes: Outside Edge, ReJoyce, A Little Night Music, Peggy for You and the plays of Jack Rosenthal Alan Aykbourn and Alan Bennett.
She has also appeared in the TV Reality shows, DNA Roots and Gogglebox, and the documentary series on Style and Art Deco.

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 Ambassadors Theatre 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.

She was married to the late playwright Jack Rosenthal for 33 years. Both of their children Amy and Adam are writers, and both of her grandchildren Ava and Sacha are GENIUSES.