Maureen Lipman becomes a dame after celebrated career on stage and screen

Maureen Lipman has enjoyed a varied career on stage and screen spanning more than 50 years.

The 74-year-old actress, who has been made a dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to charity, entertainment and the arts, has been a regular presence on TV since the 1960s.

Her lengthy CV includes everything from a comedy turn in a BT advert to a supporting role in an Oscar-winning drama.

Lipman was born in Hull in 1946 and described the city as a welcoming place to grow up for a Jewish family, saying there was no anti-semitism.

She studied at the London Academy Of Music And Dramatic Art and one of her early big film appearances came in 1968 drama Up The Junction, playing a working class young woman who befriends Suzy Kendall’s wealthy heiress.

The role was typical of Lipman’s early career. “I generally played northern working class girls,” she said. “The girl who didn’t get the man, the best friend who made jokes and then didn’t get the man. The pattern was set.”

Lipman starred in hit ITV sitcom Agony from 1979 to 1981, playing an agony aunt who dished out advice to others while her personal life was a shambles.

Back on the big screen, she earned plaudits – and a Bafta nomination – for her supporting role in 1983 comedy-drama Educating Rita, alongside Sir Michael Caine and Dame Julie Walters.

Later that decade Lipman starred in BT adverts as supportive grandmother Beattie. She revived the role before last year’s general election to criticise Jeremy Corbyn.

Lipman starred in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning 2002 drama The Pianist, playing the title character’s mother.

Her stage credits include Oklahoma! and Aladdin. Lipman is currently starring in Coronation Street as Evelyn Plummer.

She married the playwright Jack Rosenthal in 1974 and the couple have two children. Her husband died in 2004 and Lipman later said it was “impossible to grieve” because her instinct was to make people laugh.

Reporting by Press Association