Bafta-winning actress Sarah Lancashire has said being recognised in the New Year Honours is an “unexpected delight”.
The actress has won plaudits for her performances in TV shows including Happy Valley and Last Tango In Halifax, following her breakthrough role as Raquel Watts in soap opera Coronation Street during the 1990s.
Lancashire, 60, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.
She said: “It’s an unexpected delight.”
Born in Greater Manchester, Lancashire studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she honed her skills before taking on minor roles in television.
Her breakout role came as fan-favourite barmaid Raquel in Corrie for five years until 1996, appearing in more than 260 episodes.
After leaving the cobbles, Lancashire soon earned a name for her TV drama work including the BBC’s critically-acclaimed Clocking Off from 2000 until 2003 – about a series of factory workers.
During this time she won her first National Television Award (NTA) following her performance in ITV drama Seeing Red, with Lancashire playing real-life actress and child-carer Coral Atkins.
She has since starred in countless hit TV shows including Last Tango In Halifax, for which she won her first Bafta award in 2014 for her supporting role.
The British drama, written by Sally Wainwright, follows two widowed childhood sweethearts Celia and Alan who rekindle their romance in their 70s.
Lancashire starred as Celia’s daughter Caroline – a headteacher of a challenging school in West Yorkshire and a single mother to a five-year-old daughter.
During her career, Lancashire has become known for portraying complex and emotionally rich characters.
It was a decade ago that she reprised her collaboration with Wainwright to portray no-nonsense Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the Yorkshire-set thriller Happy Valley.
In 2017, she earned the best actress Bafta for her role in the second season of the show, as well as becoming an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to drama.
Earlier this year, Lancashire was given the Bafta for best actress for her portrayal in the swansong of Happy Valley.
Cawood’s final kitchen showdown with James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce in the series also won the most memorable moment at the awards ceremony.
It came a year after Lancashire won the special recognition gong at the NTAs, saying following her win: “I’m just absolutely shell-shocked.”
Lancashire most recently starred in Netflix spy thriller Black Doves, opposite Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw.
Knightley portrays a dedicated wife, mother and professional spy who has been passing on her politician husband’s secrets for a decade, while Whishaw plays a Champagne-drinking assassin and Lancashire stars as the head of the spy organisation.
