STORY SO FAR: Miranda Richardson

Award-winning actor Miranda Richardson, 59, is one of the three leads in Kay Mellor’s Girlfriends (9pm, ITV). Here’s how she’s become a star of stage and screen…

Star pupil(s): Born in Southport in 1958, Miranda was a shy child, but says: ‘I remember being able to make people laugh and loving it.’ After school, she won a place at the Bristol Old Vic, along with Daniel Day-Lewis, Greta Scacchi and Jenny Seagrove.

Treading the boards: Starting out in repertory theatre, she made her West End debut in 1980, in Moving. She has since received widespread acclaim in numerous roles; in 1987, she was nominated for an Olivier

Award for A Lie Of The Mind. Golden year: In 1985, she made her

film debut in Dance With A Stranger, playing Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain; a year later, her big TV break came in Blackadder, as Queenie. Miranda has since starred in films such as Empire Of The Sun (1987), The Crying Game (1992), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Hours (2002) and Made In Dagenham (2010). Her turn in Damage (1992) earned her a first Oscar nod, while Tom & Viv (1994) won her a second. ‘I would rather do many small roles,’ she says, ‘than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting.’ Drama queen: Miranda’s TV roles

include A Dance To The Music Of Time (1997), Merlin (1998), The Lost Prince (2003), Gideon’s Daughter (2006), Parade’s End (2012),

And Then There Were None and An Inspector Calls (2015).