Patricia Hodge

Patricia Ann Hodge, OBE (born 29 September 1946) is an English actor. She made her West End debut in 1972 and starred in the 1973 West End production of Pippin, directed by Bob Fosse. She received two Olivier Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical, before winning the 2000 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the play Money.

Patricia Hodge OBE
Born	(1946-09-29) 29 September 1946 Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England
Years active	1971–present
Spouse(s)	Peter Douglas Owen ​ ( m. 1976; died 2016)
Children	2

Other roles include the 1983 film Betrayal, the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey (1978–1992), the 1986 TV adaptation of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil and the TV film Hotel du Lac (1986), for which she received a Best Actress BAFTA TV Award nomination. From 2009 to 2015, she starred in the BBC sitcom Miranda.

Early life

Hodge was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.[1] The daughter of the Royal Hotel owner/manager Eric and his wife Marion (née Phillips),[2] Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St. Helen's School, Northwood, Middlesex, before attending Maria Grey College in Twickenham (later becoming part of Brunel University London), to train as a teacher.[3] She taught English and drama at Russell County Primary School in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, whilst also applying to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[4] She started at LAMDA when she was 22, being awarded on graduation the Eveline Evans Award for Best Actress.[5]

Career

Hodge made her professional stage debut in the Howard Barker play No-One Was Saved at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 1971. She made her West End debut in Rookery Nook in 1972, and worked with Bob Fosse in 1973 on Pippin. However, when applying for television work she found she had become classed as a theatre actress. Having made the breakthrough in the role of Phyllida (Trant) Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey, she found when trying to make the occasional return to theatre work that she had been classed as a television actress.

She has appeared in roles as diverse as in The Naked Civil Servant opposite John Hurt, shortly after she featured in the BBC's 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2 starring Julie Covington, Bernard Cribbins and Paul Jones.[6] It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977.[7] She featured as Myra Arundel in the 1984 BBC version of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, as Margaret Thatcher in The Falklands Play, and in 2007 as Betty, the wife of tycoon Robert Maxwell, in the BBC TV drama Maxwell opposite David Suchet.[8] She took the female lead in the 1983 film, Betrayal (based on Harold Pinter's play Betrayal), a roman à clef derived from the playwright's affair with broadcaster Joan Bakewell.

She co-starred with Dame Judi Dench in the 1995 London revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music as Countess Charlotte Malcom.

She was nominated for a BAFTA for her role in a television adaptation of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac in 1987, and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the production of Money at the Royal National Theatre.[9] Hodge is an Honorary Graduate (DLitt) of Brunel University and one of the founder members of the Brunel Club.[10] From 2009 to 2015, she played a comedy role in the BBC sitcom Miranda, as the mother of the eponymous main character. Hodge reprised the role alongside the rest of the cast for the 2017 Royal Variety Performance. In 2012 she toured in Christopher Luscombe's revival of Dandy Dick, starring alongside Nicholas Provost. She is joint President of Grimsby's Caxton Theatre.

Personal life

Hodge married music publisher Peter Owen on 31 July 1976 in Tonbridge. The couple have two sons: Alexander Richard Charles (born March 1989); and Edward Frederick James (born January 1992). Her husband died in May 2016.[11]

Hodge was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama.[12]

Filmography

Television

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	A Very English Scandal	Ursula Thorpe
2015	Downton Abbey	Mrs Miranda Pelham	2015 Christmas Special
2014	You Can't Get The Staff	Narrator
2013	Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Big Four	Madame Olivier
2009–2015	Miranda	Penny	20 episodes
2007	Maxwell	Betty Maxwell
2007	Hustle	Veronica Powell
2006	Agatha Christie's Marple	Mrs. Evadne Willett	"The Sittaford Mystery"
2003	Sweet Medicine	Georgina Sweet
2002	Waking the Dead	Lady Alice Beatty	episodes: "Special Relationship part 1&2"
2002	The Falklands Play	Rt Hons Margaret Thatcher MP (Prime Minister)
1996	The Legacy of Reginald Perrin	Geraldine Hackstraw
1992	The Cloning of Joanna May	Joanna May
1991	Rich Tea and Sympathy	Julia Merrygrove
1989	Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming	Lady Evelyn
1989	Victoria Wood	Moira	episode: "Staying In"
1989	The Shell Seekers	Olivia
1989	Inspector Morse	Lady Hanbury	episode: "Ghost in the Machine"
1988	Heat of the Day	Stella
1986	Hotel du Lac	Monica
1986	Robin of Sherwood	Queen Hadwisa	episode: "The Pretender"
1986	The Return of Sherlock Holmes	Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope	"The Second Stain"
1986	The Life and Loves of a She-Devil	Mary Fisher
1986	The Death of the Heart	Anna Quayne
1985	Time for Murder	Margaret Tutting	"Dust to Dust"
1984	Hay Fever	Myra Arundel
1983	Jemima Shore Investigates	Jemima Shore
1981–1982	Nanny	Dorinda Sackville
1981	Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years	Lady Londonderry
1980–1982	Holding the Fort	Penny Milburn
1980–1981	The Other 'Arf	Sybilla Howarth
1979	The Professionals	Ann Holly	episode: "Involvement"
1978	Edward and Mrs Simpson	Lady Diana Cooper
1978–1992	Rumpole of the Bailey	Phyllida Erskine-Brown
1975	Great Big Groovy Horse
1975	The Naked Civil Servant	Ballet Teacher
1975	The Girls of Slender Means	Anne Baberton

Films

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	The Disappearance	Young Wife
1978	Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse	Sister Belter
1978	The Waterloo Bridge Handicap	Gossiping Girl
1980	The Elephant Man	Screaming Mum
1981	Riding High	Miss Hemmings
1983	Betrayal	Emma
1985	Behind Enemy Lines	Elizabeth Beaumont
1988	Sunset	Christina Alperin
1988	Thieves in the Night
1988	Just Ask for Diamond	Betty Charlady / Brenda von Falkenberg
2002	Before You Go	Violet Mary Heaney
2015	N-Day	Susan Jennings

Stage

• No-One Was Saved, 1971
• Rookery Nook, 1972
• Popkiss, 1972
• Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1973
• Pippin, 1973
• Hair, 1974
• The Beggar's Opera, 1975
• Pal Joey, 1976
• Look Back in Anger, 1976
• Then and Now, 1979
• The Mitford Girls, 1981
• As You Like It, 1983
• Benefactors, 1984
• Lady in the Dark, 1988
• Noël and Gertie, 1989–90
• Shades, 1992
• Separate Tables, 1993
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1994
• A Little Night Music, 1995
• Money, 1999–2000
• Summerfolk, 1999–2000
• Noises Off, 2000–01
• His Dark Materials, 2003–04
• Dream Me a Winter, 2006 (part of the Old Vic's '24 Hour Plays')
• Boeing Boeing, 2007
• The Country Wife, 2007–08
• The Clean House, 2008
• Calendar Girls, 2008–09
• The Breath of Life, 2011
• Dandy Dick, 2012
• Relative Values, 2013–14
• Travels with My Aunt, 2016[13]
• Copenhagen, 2018
• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, 2019

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Result
1981	Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical	The Mitford Girls	Nominated
1987	BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress	Hotel du Lac	Nominated
1990	Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical	Noel and Gertie	Nominated
2000	Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress	Money	Won

References

1. "Miranda actress Patricia Hodge speaks at Everyman Club meeting". Grimsby Telegraph. 12 September 2013. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
2. "Patricia Hodge Biography (1946–)". Retrieved 21 April 2017.
3. Lacey, Hester (9 May 2014). "The Inventory: Patricia Hodge". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
4. "Events – LAMDA". Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
5. "The Big Interview: Patricia Hodge". OfficialLondonTheatre.com. 2 May 2007. Archived from the original on 16 May 2007. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
6. "Great Big Groovy Horse – BBC Two England – 25 December 1975 – BBC Genome". Retrieved 21 April 2017.
7. "Great Big Groovy Horse – BBC One London – 21 December 1977 – BBC Genome". Retrieved 21 April 2017.
8. Dessau, B (29 September 2007). "A taste of plummy". The Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
9. O'Toole honoured at Oliviers BBC News – 18 February 2000
10. Southbank Sinfonia and Patricia Hodge Archived 29 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine Brunel University – 2004
11. "Peter Owen, publisher – obituary". 31 May 2016 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
12. "No. 61962". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2017. p. B12.
13. "Travels with My Aunt review". The Guardian. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.

External links

• Patricia Hodge on IMDb