Acting
61 titles
Lynda Bellingham played many roles during her five-decade professional career, but became synonymous with one. "Being a mum making gravy was not quite how I had seen my career advancing," she said once. But between 1983 and 1999 that's what she did in 42 "episodes" of an award-winning TV ad. Since the early 1980s, her name was rarely mentioned in print without it being prefaced with "Oxo mum". During her career, though, she starred on TV as the vet's wife Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small in the 80s and as one of two divorcees trying to forge a relationship in the 90s sitcom Second Thoughts, opposite James Bolam. On stage she was best known for playing the lead in a touring production of Calendar Girls between 2008 and 2012. She was also, for four years between 2007 and 2011, a regular member of the team on Loose Women, the daytime TV chat show. She had few regrets about how her career turned out, summarising its trajectory thus on her website: "Arrived in London at the Central School [for Speech and Drama] in 1966 and never looked back. I had a ball!" Bellingham, though, knew that gravy, like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, left an indelible mark. "In many ways I was very proud of what we did, but there is no doubt that my credibility as an actress was knocked," she reflected. "Certain people in the industry would never employ me as a serious actress after it. On the other hand, it gave me the financial security to go off and work in the theatre for very little money." Her performances as Mrs Oxo were reportedly responsible for a 10% increase in stock cube sales.
Too Close for Comfort
2012
Odd One In
2010
Mister Eleven
2009
All Star Mr & Mrs
2008
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
2007
Bonkers
2007
Robin Hood
2006
Devil's Gate
2004
Murder in Suburbia
2004
The Long Bank Holiday
2004
New Tricks
2004
One Life
2003
Celebrity Naked Ambition
2003
The Last Detective
2003
Bodywork
2001
Waking the Dead
2001
The Romanovs: A Crowned Family
2000
At Home with the Braithwaites
2000
Loose Women
1999
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
1999
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
1998
The Scarlet Tunic
1998
An Audience with Ronnie Corbett
1997
Midsomer Murders
1997
Faith in the Future
1995
Martin Chuzzlewit
1994
Junior Masterchef
1994
Gibberish
1992
Second Thoughts
1991
This Morning
1988
The Vision
1987
Filthy Rich & Catflap
1987
Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe
1986
Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids
1986
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
1986
Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet
1986
Casualty
1986
Screen Two
1985
Surprise, Surprise
1984
Wogan
1982
Riding High
1981
Funny Man
1981
Mackenzie
1980
Shoestring
1979
The Waterloo Bridge Handicap
1978
The Pink Medicine Show
1978
All Creatures Great and Small
1978
An Audience with...
1978
Blake's 7
1978
The Professionals
1977
Stand up, Virgin Soldiers
1977
Sweeney!
1977
Confessions of a Driving Instructor
1976
Yus, My Dear
1976
Angels
1975
The Sweeney
1975
Tell Tarby
1973
The Misfit
1970
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969
Doctor Who
1963
Z-Cars
1962