British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
Encyclopedia
1950s
- 1955 Googie WithersGoogie WithersGeorgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...
- 1956 Virginia McKennaVirginia McKennaVirginia A. McKenna OBE is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner.-Early career:McKenna trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama then worked on stage in London's West End theatres before making her motion picture debut in 1952...
- 1957 Rosalie CrutchleyRosalie CrutchleyRosalie Crutchley was an English actress. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Crutchley was best known for her television performances, but had a long and successful career in the theatre and in films, making her stage debut at least as early as 1932 and her screen debut in 1947...
- 1958 Gwen Watford
- 1959 Catherine Lacey
1960s
- 1960 Catherine LaceyCatherine LaceyCatherine Lacey was an English actress who made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes . She was an established stage character player before she was 30...
- 1961 Billie WhitelawBillie WhitelawBillie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
- 1962 Ruth DunningRuth DunningRuth Dunning was a Welsh actress of stage, television, and film. She first came to prominence in the role of Gladys Grove in BBC Television's The Grove Family , also portraying that character in the 1955 film It's a Great Day...
- 1963 Brenda BruceBrenda BruceBrenda Bruce was a British actress. She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film, and television.-Early life:Brenda Bruce was born in Manchester...
- 1964 Vivien MerchantVivien MerchantVivien Merchant was a British actress.-Career:Merchant performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie and Frenzy...
- 1965 Katherine Blake
- 1966 Gwen WatfordGwen WatfordGwendoline "Gwen" Watford was an English film, stage, and television actress. She married actor Richard Bebb in 1952....
- 1967 Vanessa RedgraveVanessa RedgraveVanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
- 1968 Judi DenchJudi DenchDame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
in Talking to a StrangerTalking to a StrangerTalking to a Stranger is a British television drama, produced by the BBC and made up of four separate plays telling the story of one weekend from the viewpoints of four different members of the same family. Originally transmitted on BBC2 as part of the Theatre 625 anthology strand, the four... - 1969 Wendy CraigWendy CraigWendy Craig is a BAFTA Award winning English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms Butterflies, ...And Mother Makes Three and ...And Mother Makes Five...
in Not in Front of the Children
1970s
- 1970 Margaret TyzackMargaret TyzackMargaret Maud Tyzack, CBE was a British actress.-Early life:Tyzack was born in Essex, England, the daughter of Doris and Thomas Edward Tyzack. She grew up in West Ham...
in The First ChurchillsThe First ChurchillsThe First Churchills was a BBC serial from 1969 about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough... - 1971 Annette CrosbieAnnette CrosbieAnnette Crosbie, OBE is a Scottish character actor.-Life and career:Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, to Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actor. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens...
in The Six Wives of Henry VIII - 1972 Patricia HayesPatricia HayesPatricia Lawlor Hayes, OBE was an English comedy actress.Hayes was born in Streatham, London. As a child Hayes attended Sacred Heart School in Wandsworth....
in Edna, The Inebriate Woman - 1973 Billie WhitelawBillie WhitelawBillie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
in The Sextet - 1974 Celia JohnsonCelia JohnsonDame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE was an English actress.She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter , for which she received a nomination for the...
in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont - 1975 Lee RemickLee RemickLee Ann Remick was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known films are Anatomy of a Murder , Days of Wine and Roses , and The Omen .-Early life:...
in JennieJennieFor the Douglas Preston novel, see Jennie .For the name, see Jennifer Jennie is a musical with a book by Arnold Schulman, music by Arthur Schwartz, and lyrics by Howard Dietz, and starred Mary Martin.... - 1976 Annette CrosbieAnnette CrosbieAnnette Crosbie, OBE is a Scottish character actor.-Life and career:Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, to Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actor. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens...
in Edward the Seventh - 1977 Siân PhillipsSiân PhillipsJane Elizabeth Ailwên "Siân" Phillips, CBE, is a Welsh actress.-Early life:Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally , a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman...
in I, ClaudiusI, Claudius (TV series)I, Claudius is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Written by Jack Pulman, it proved one of the corporation's most successful drama serials of all time... - 1978 Penelope KeithPenelope KeithPenelope Anne Constance Keith, CBE, DL is an English actress.Having started her television career in the 1950s, Penelope Keith became a household name in the United Kingdom in the 1970s when she played Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life...
in The Norman ConquestsThe Norman ConquestsThe Norman Conquests is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. The small scale of the drama is typical of Ayckbourn. There are only six characters, namely Norman, his wife Ruth, her brother Reg and his wife Sarah, Ruth's sister Annie, and Tom, Annie's next-door-neighbour... - 1979 Francesca AnnisFrancesca AnnisFrancesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...
in LillieLillieLillie is a British television serial made by London Weekend Television for ITV and broadcast in 1978.This period serial starred Francesca Annis in the title role of Lillie Langtry...
1980s
- 1980 Cheryl CampbellCheryl CampbellCheryl Campbell is an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early years:Cheryl Campbell was educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School, St Albans; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art...
in The Duke of Wellington - 1981 Peggy AshcroftPeggy AshcroftDame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
in Cream in My CoffeeCream in My CoffeeCream in My Coffee is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast on ITV on 2 November 1980 as the last in a loosely-connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A juxtaposition between youth and old age, the play combines a non-linear narrative with the use of popular music to...
and Caught on a TrainCaught on a TrainCaught On A Train is a British television play written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Peter Duffell, based on an overnight train journey across Europe, and following the route of a journey Poliakoff had himself made from London to Vienna... - 1982 Judi DenchJudi DenchDame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
in A Fine RomanceA Fine RomanceA Fine Romance can refer to:*"A Fine Romance" , by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields* A Fine Romance a romantic comedy by William James Royce*A Fine Romance , a 1991 film... - 1983 Beryl ReidBeryl ReidBeryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE was a British actress of stage and screen.-Early life:Born in Hereford, England in 1919, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools.-Career:Reid applied for and was accepted in a revue in...
in Smiley's PeopleSmiley's PeopleSmiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy... - 1984 Coral BrowneCoral BrowneCoral Browne was an Australian-American stage and screen actress.-Career:Coral Edith Brown was the only daughter of a restaurant-owner. She and her two brothers were raised in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, where she studied at the National Gallery Art School...
in An Englishman AbroadAn Englishman AbroadAn Englishman Abroad is a 1983 BBC television drama, based on the true story of a chance meeting of an actress, Coral Browne, with Guy Burgess , a member of the Cambridge spy ring who worked for the Soviet Union whilst with MI6... - 1985 Peggy AshcroftPeggy AshcroftDame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
in The Jewel In The Crown - 1986 Claire BloomClaire BloomClaire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
in ShadowlandsShadowlandsShadowlands is a 1985 television film, written by William Nicholson, directed by Norman Stone and produced by David M. Thompson for BBC Wales. Its subject is the relationship between Oxford don and author, C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham.... - 1987 Anna MasseyAnna MasseyAnna Raymond Massey, CBE was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac.-Early life:...
in Hotel du LacHotel du LacHotel du Lac is a 1984 Booker Prize winning novel by English writer Anita Brookner.-Plot:Romantic novelist Edith Hope is staying in a hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva, where her friends have advised her to retreat following an unfortunate incident... - 1988 Emma ThompsonEmma ThompsonEmma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
in Fortunes of WarFortunes of War (tv series)Fortunes of War is a 1987 BBC television adaptation of Olivia Manning's cycle of novels Fortunes of War. It stars Kenneth Branagh as Guy Pringle, lecturer in English Literature in Bucharest during the early part of the Second World War, and Emma Thompson as his wife Harriet...
and Tutti FruttiTutti Frutti (1987 TV series)Tutti Frutti is a BBC Scotland six part drama series, transmitted in 1987 and written by John Byrne. It starred Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, Maurice Roëves, Richard Wilson and Katy Murphy... - 1989 Thora HirdThora HirdDame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
in Talking Heads: A Cream Cracker Under The SetteeA Cream Cracker under the SetteeA Cream Cracker Under The Settee is a dramatic monologue written by Alan Bennett in 1987 for television, as part of his Talking Heads series for the BBC. The series became very popular, moving onto BBC Radio, international theatre, becoming one of the best-selling audio book releases of all time...
1990s
- 1990 Diana RiggDiana RiggDame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
in Mother LoveMother Love (TV series)Mother Love is a British television drama that first aired in 1989. It was adapted by Andrew Davies from Laura Black's novel concerning a mother's obsessive love for her son, vengeful hatred of his father, her ex-husband, and the effect on her daughter-in-law and grandchildren... - 1991 Geraldine McEwanGeraldine McEwanGeraldine McEwan is an English actor with a diverse history in theatre, film, and television. From 2004 to 2009 she appeared as Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie sleuth, for the series Marple.-Background:...
in Oranges Are Not the Only FruitOranges Are Not the Only Fruit (TV serial)Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was a critically acclaimed 1990 BBC television drama, directed by Beeban Kidron. Jeanette Winterson wrote the screenplay, adapting her semi-autobiographical first novel of the same name . The BBC produced and screened three episodes, running to a total of 2 hours and... - 1992 Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in Prime Suspect - 1993 Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in Prime Suspect 2 - 1994 Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in Prime Suspect 3 - 1995 Juliet AubreyJuliet AubreyJuliet Aubrey is a British actress, best known for her role as Helen Cutter on Primeval .-Career:Aubrey attended to King's College London, where she studied Classics and Archaeology...
in MiddlemarchMiddlemarchMiddlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes... - 1996 Jennifer EhleJennifer EhleJennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:...
in Pride and PrejudicePride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England... - 1997 Gina McKeeGina McKeeGeorgina "Gina" McKee is an English actor known for her television roles in Our Friends in the North , The Lost Prince and The Forsyte Saga ; and her portrayal of Bella in the film Notting Hill ....
in Our Friends in the NorthOur Friends in the NorthOur Friends in the North is a British television drama serial, produced by the BBC and originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC Two in early 1996... - 1998 Daniela NardiniDaniela NardiniDaniela Nardini is a Scottish actress of Italian ancestry, best known for playing Anna Forbes in the BBC Two television series This Life. The role earned her a BAFTA Best Actress award in 1998 and also earned her a Scottish BAFTA...
in This LifeThis LifeThis Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007.... - 1999 Thora HirdThora HirdDame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
in Talking Heads: Waiting For The Telegram
2000s
- 2000 Thora HirdThora HirdDame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
in Lost for Words - 2001 Judi DenchJudi DenchDame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
in The Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde BombshellsThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to reunite the members of the World War II-era swing band with which she played saxophone.It features Carry On... - 2002 Julie WaltersJulie WaltersJulie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
in My Beautiful Son - 2003 Julie WaltersJulie WaltersJulie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
in MurderMurderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide... - 2004 Julie WaltersJulie WaltersJulie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
in The Canterbury TalesThe Canterbury TalesThe Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at... - 2005 Anamaria MarincaAnamaria MarincaAnamaria Marinca is a Romanian actress. She made her debut with the Channel 4 film Sex Traffic, for which she won British Academy Television Award for Best Actress...
in Sex Traffic - 2006 Anna Maxwell MartinAnna Maxwell MartinAnna Maxwell Martin , sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is a two-time BAFTA award-winning English actress who has won acclaim for her performances as Lyra in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre, as Esther Summerson in the BBC's 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, and as N in...
in Bleak HouseBleak HouseBleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon... - 2007 Victoria WoodVictoria WoodVictoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
in Housewife, 49Housewife, 49Housewife, 49 was a 2006 television drama based on the wartime diaries of Nella Last. Written by and starring English actress and comedian Victoria Wood, it follows the experiences of an ordinary housewife and mother in the Northern English town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria during the Second World... - 2008 Eileen AtkinsEileen AtkinsDame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
in CranfordCranfordCranford may refer to:*Cranford - a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell*Cranford - a BBC television adaptation of Cranford and other works by Elizabeth GaskellCranford may also refer to the following places:... - 2009 Anna Maxwell MartinAnna Maxwell MartinAnna Maxwell Martin , sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is a two-time BAFTA award-winning English actress who has won acclaim for her performances as Lyra in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre, as Esther Summerson in the BBC's 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, and as N in...
in Poppy ShakespearePoppy ShakespearePoppy Shakespeare is a novel about mental illness by Clare Allan. It tells the story of day patients at a mental health hospital. The central characters are Poppy Shakespeare, a new patient, and "N", a long term patient. Poppy arrives at the hospital strongly asserting that she is sane and...
2010s
- 2010 Julie WaltersJulie WaltersJulie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
in MoMo (film)Mo is a 2010 TV film about the later life and career of the British Labour Party politician Mo Mowlam, written by Neil McKay and directed by Philip Martin.-Synopsis:... - 2011 Vicky McClureVicky McClureVicky McClure is a BAFTA-winning English actress best known for her work in the films of Shane Meadows. She played the title character's sister Ladine in A Room for Romeo Brass , and featured in Meadows's most successful film to date, This Is England...
in This is England '86This Is England '86This Is England '86 is a 2010 British drama series written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne. A spin-off from the 2006 film This Is England, and set three years later, it focuses on the mod revival scene rather than the skinhead subculture...