‘10 women get best TV jobs ...and I’m not one of them’
Frustrated former Corrie star Sally hits out at industry bias
FORMER Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay has hit out at the TV industry for using the same few women of “a certain age” in most shows – while others get offered grandma roles.
Frustrated Sally turned to writing and producing, including on her own comedy crime drama, The Madame Blanc Mysteries, for Channel 5.
The 50-year-old – who played Shelley in Corrie – now says: “My show is 70% women of a certain age.
“I think it’s bull **** that at a certain age you’re not wanted or you’re playing grandmas at 50. There’s a list of 10 older women who are allowed to be on telly and I’m not on that list, so that’s why I wrote my own show.”
She said she and fellow actress Suranne Jones tried to sell the idea of police drama Scott & Bailey “for six years, because when we were going into meetings they would say ‘Yeah, but where’s the bloke? Where’s the man for the women to look at?’
“We were like ‘There isn’t one, there doesn’t need to be one’.
“The statistic is that 50% of soap opera writers are women, but the minute you get to prime-time television it goes down to 14%.”
She told Radio Times: “It’s almost like ‘Well, we’ve got [writer] Sally Wainwright, we’re fine. Everything else, it’s got to be these five blokes.’ That’s got to change.”
Sally’s comments echo Billie Piper’s in 2020, when the former Doctor Who star said: “I found it hard to be an actress…who wasn’t considered for certain parts as I wasn’t in the group of five actresses that gets cast for absolutely everything in this country.”
Prominent TV actresses in recent years include The Crown’s Olivia Colman, 50, Unforgotten star Nicola Walker, 53, Happy Valley’s Sarah Lancashire, 59, Line of Duty star Keeley Hawes, 48, and Gillian Anderson, 55, who will play Emily Maitlis in Netflix’s Scoop – about Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview.
Sally’s friend Suranne, 45, is one of TV’s most in-demand actresses, having starred in Gentleman Jack, Vigil and Maryland recently.
Ruth Wilson, 42, Alison Steadman, 77, and Lesley Manville, 67, are also among the busiest TV stars.