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.

Фільмографія

• 2012Too Close for Comfort — Mum
• Odd One In
• Mister Eleven — Shirley
• All Star Mr & Mrs
• Bonkers — Mrs Wadlow
• Робін Гуд
• 2004Devil's Gate — Marlene
• Murder in Suburbia — Milly Goodman
• New Tricks
• 2004The Long Bank Holiday — Councillor Marjorie Balsam
• One Life
• The Last Detective
• 2001Bodywork — Poppy Fields
• Waking the Dead — Mary Mantel
• At Home with the Braithwaites — Pauline Farnell
• Reach for the Moon — Penny Martin
• 2000The Romanovs: A Crowned Family — Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna
• 1999Don't Go Breaking My Heart — Maxine
• 1998Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
• 1998The Scarlet Tunic — Emily Marlowe
• 1997An Audience with Ronnie Corbett
• Суто англійські вбивства — Jane Willows
• Далзієл і Паско — Jess Pitman
• Faith in the Future
• Junior Masterchef
• Martin Chuzzlewit — Mrs Lupin
• Gibberish
• Second Thoughts — Faith
• Filthy Rich & Catflap — Ms Tomkins
• 1987The Vision — Mary Morris
• Casualty — Steph Yates
• 1986Doctor Who: Mindwarp — The Inquisitor
• 1986Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids — The Inquisitor
• 1986Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet — The Inquisitor
• 1986Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe — The Inquisitor
• Screen Two — Mary Morris
• Funny Man — Gwen
• 1981Riding High — Miss Mott
• Mackenzie — Ruth Isaacs
• Shoestring — Nicola
• All Creatures Great and Small — Helen Herriot
• Blake's 7 — Vena
• The Pink Medicine Show
• 1978The Waterloo Bridge Handicap — Likely Lady (Miss Beamish)
• Cottage to Let — Barbara
• Don't Forget to Write! — Angela
• 1977Stand up, Virgin Soldiers — Valerie
• 1977Sweeney! — Janice Wyatt
• The Professionals — Betty Hope
• 1976Confessions of a Driving Instructor — Mary Truscott
• Yus, My Dear — Carol
• Angels
• The Sweeney — Nancy King
• Tell Tarby — Nurse Norma Snockers
• The Misfit — Wee Jeannie
• ITV Saturday Night Theatre — Nurse Mary Tiller
• Доктор Хто — The Inquisitor
• Z-Cars

Ток-шоу, премії та інші появи (7)

• The Alan Titchmarsh Show — Self
• 2003Celebrity Naked Ambition — Self (archive footage)
• Loose Women — Self
• This Morning — Self
• Surprise, Surprise — Self
• Воґан — Self
• An Audience with... — Self