The highs and lows of the Nolan Sisters

ANNE: The eldest daughter born into a performing family, her talent as a singer was quickly apparent and by her teens she’d begun joining her parents on stage when they sang in clubs and music halls by night. In 2008, she published her autobiography, Anne’s Song ,in which she disclosed the sexual abuse she’d suffered at the hands of her father during his heavy drinking years. In 2009 Anne was devastated when she was excluded from a lucrative Nolan Sisters reunion tour, sparking a rift that has now been resolved.

MAUREEN: Described by the rest of her family as “the pretty one” she was a key member of the Nolans, eventually leaving to have a family with her partner Ritchie Hoyle. They were together for 28 years but only married in 2010, in a ceremony paid for by

OK! magazine. The marriage, she has since said, marked the beginning of the end. He reunited with his first love and they agreed on a split while she was on tour with a production of

Footloose. She’s currently starring in a touring production of Menopause The Musical.

DENISE: A professional performer since the age of 11, Denise was a founding member of the Nolan Sisters but also the first to leave in 1978. Soon after she launched a solo career, often performing with her partner, Tom, who is a drummer. She eventually found her way into panto, and then in 1997, she was the first of the sisters to be cast in a West End show.

BERNIE: Bernie, the second youngest was the lead vocalist of the Nolans. When the band ended, she joined a touring production of Blood

Brothers and on the strength of her acting, later won a role in the Channel 4 soap Brookside. She also married a drummer — Steve Doneathy. Their first child, Kate, was tragically stillborn in 1998. The following year their daughter Erin was born. After an initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 2010, she was treated, went into remission and was declared cancer free. But in 2013 she died, aged 52.

COLEEN: The cheeky, cheerful baby of the family, Coleen was the only one of the Nolan siblings to have been born in the UK. As a child, she would perform as the opening act for the Nolan family singers, so that she could be off stage and in bed at a decent hour. She joined the Nolan Sisters after her elder sister Denise left the band. She later launched a career as a television presenter on This Morning.