Maxine Peake

Few actors have moved as easily between the sitcom set and the rehearsal room as Maxine Peake. Born in Bolton in 1974, she came to wide attention as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's dinnerladies, then as Veronica Ball in Channel 4's Shameless, and her career since has been built on a preference for demanding parts. Much of her grounding lies in the theatre, beginning with the youth programme at Manchester's Royal Exchange.

Her parts since have shown real range: Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk, Grace Middleton in The Village opposite John Simm, and Myra Hindley in ITV's See No Evil: The Moors Murders. At the Royal Exchange she played the title role in Hamlet, directed by Sarah Frankcom, and in 2016 took on Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Her play Beryl, about the Leeds-born cyclist Beryl Burton, was first broadcast on Radio 4 in 2012 and staged at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2014. More recently she starred in the Black Mirror episode Metalhead and in the 2018 film Funny Cow, in the title role.