From racy role to TV’s toughest policewoman… Sarah Lancashire’s long journey to Happy Valley

As Sergeant Catherine Cawood, she has millions of viewers on edge before the finale of Happy Valley this Sunday.

And for Sarah Lancashire, the tough role in the BBC1 crime drama has marked a change of pace from the characters that made her a household name.

The Oldham-born actress, 58, is perhaps best known for playing waitress Raquel in Coronation Street, but she has had a varied career since leaving drama school.

Her first major role, as a beauty contestant in a bathing suit and high heels, was on stage in 1986 in Manchester Library Theater Company’s The Beauty Game.

Walk to Fame: Lancashire with Bill Tarmey as Jack Duckworth in Coronation Street in 1986

Actor: Lancashire with Mark Wingett in The Bill in 1991 and back at Rovers as Raquel in 1994

She then had a fleeting appearance on Coronation Street as Jack Duckworth’s future tenant, and also in an episode of The Bill, before returning to Corrie as Raquel, the waitress at Rovers Return, becoming one of the soap’s most beloved characters. of ITV.

Her character left The Street in 1996, leaving ill-fated husband Norman ‘Curly’ Watts. Lancashire said quitting smoking was “like jumping off a cliff at midnight”, but her desire to pursue other types of acting led her to roles as a nurse on ITV’s Where The Heart Is, as a factory worker in the BBC1 drama Clocking Off and as a lawyer. in the BBC comedy series Chambers.

She signed a contract with ITV worth £1.6 million, which saw her star in an adaptation of DH Lawrence’s novel Sons And Lovers. A return to the theater saw her appear on the West End in the musicals Guys And Dolls and, in 2011, Betty Blue Eyes.

Versatile: With James Fleet and John Bird in Chambers in 2000, and with Rupert Evans in Sons And Lovers in 2003

Talent: On stage at Betty Blue Eyes in 2011 and at Last Tango in Halifax in 2014

Cooking up a cliffhanger: As a TV chef in Julia in 2022 and as Police Sergeant Catherine Atwood in Happy Valley

Lancashire then starred in the BBC1 comedy-drama Last Tango In Halifax, which would run until 2020. It was written by Sally Wainwright, who also created Happy Valley, which first aired in 2014.

Before filming the final series of the crime drama, Lancashire, who is married to television executive Peter Salmon and has three children, began playing television chef Julia Child on the HBO series Julia.

Happy Valley has gained a cult following in the US through Netflix. Fans there and in the UK are gearing up for an explosive final episode, with a trailer hinting at a fierce showdown between Sergeant Cawood and villain Tommy Lee Royce, played by James Norton.