Maggie Steed

Maggie Steed
Born	Margaret Baker (1946-12-01) 1 December 1946 Plymouth, Devon, England
Education	Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Occupations	Actress comedian
Years active	1970–present

Maggie Steed (born Margaret Baker; 1 December 1946) is an English actress and comedian.

Career

After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, Steed left the theatre for several years. She stated: "Actresses in those days had to be 'dolly birds' and I was just Margaret Baker from Plymouth, tall with very gappy teeth, so I became a secretary instead. It was only years later, when I'd grown up politically and become interested in theatre, that I started again and ended up at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre with Clive Russell and Sue Johnston." Steed has performed with the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and with Belt and Braces, the political theatre troupe run by Gavin Richards as well as working as a comedian in alternative cabaret.

She was one of the first women to become involved in the alternative comedy scene when it sprang into existence in 1979, and performing at the Comedy Store, with the group Alternative Cabaret and elsewhere. Her material was personal and confessional. For example, in a routine performed at an Alternative Cabaret show at the Elgin pub on 27 March 1980, she talked about the difficulties posed by taking the contraceptive pill: "So you wake up in the morning, look at the packet, what do you find? Ha ha ha ha! You've taken next Wednesday's! [murmur of laughter] And today's Thursday! And it's gonna leave a whole week you're gonna spend taking yesterday's pills – today. [laughter] And you get to the weekend, you get pissed a couple of times – and come Tuesday, you've got five pills . [laughter] Staring at you in the face, accusingly. [laughter] So you take them out, you know, and – grind 'em up [laughter] – and you have 'em on your toast for breakfast. [laughter]"

Her first major television role was playing Rita Moon in the series Shine on Harvey Moon. She played Margaret Crabbe in Pie in the Sky and Phyllis Woolf in Born and Bred. Her television credits include appearances on Fox, Minder, Sensitive Skin and Jam & Jerusalem.

In 2008, Steed appeared on tour in Michael Frayn's comedy Noises Off as Mrs Clackett, produced by the Ambassador Theatre Group, which included the New Victoria Theatre, Woking. The cast included Sophie Bould, Colin Baker and Jonathan Coy. In 2010 she appeared in the short film The Miserables, and the following year onstage in a comedy duo role with actress Jackie Clune in a production of The Belle's Stratagem.

In April 2017, it was announced that Steed was joining the cast of EastEnders as Joyce Murray. It was announced in March 2018 that her character had been written out of the series and subsequently would be killed off.

Political activism

Steed was active in the Campaign Against Racism in the Media. She appeared in an edition of the BBC's Open Door series on 1 March 1979 (with Stuart Hall) entitled "It Ain't Half Racist, Mum", criticising British television's discussion and representation of immigration and racial stereotypes.

She helped write and perform in the comedy benefit concert An Evening for Nicaragua, at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which was shown on British television in 1983. The cast included Ben Elton, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Emma Thompson and Rik Mayall.Steed visited Nicaragua in 1982 with Andy de la Tour.

Film

Year	Title	Role
1980	Babylon	Woman at Lockup
1981	The History Man	Myra Beamish
1987	Intimate Contact	Becca Crichton
1990	Blood Rights	Tess Barker
1992	Clothes in the Wardrobe	Mrs. Raffald
	Growing Rich	Raelene
1993	Olly's Prison	Ellen
1999	Simon Magus	Muttchen
2000	Stardom	British Fashion Reporter
2004	Lawrence of Arabia Close	Doris
2006	The Painted Veil	Mrs Garstin
2009	The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus	Louis Vuitton Woman
2010	The Miserables	Evelyn Pickleton
2013	A Promise	Frau Hermann
	Alpha: Omega	Dee
2014	Pudsey the Dog: The Movie	Mrs Willoughby
2016	Florence Foster Jenkins	Mrs O'Flaherty
	Juliet Remembered	Juliet
	A Cure for Wellness	Mrs Abramov
2017	Transformers: The Last Knight	Vivian's Grandmother
	Paddington 2	Mrs Gertrude Biggleswade
2019	Fisherman's Friends	Maggie
2022	Fisherman's Friends: One and All	Maggie

Television

• Coronation Street – as Ellen Smith (1970)
• Shine on Harvey Moon – as Rita Moon (1982)
• Minder – "Broken Arrow" episode as Sherry (1982)
• The Young Ones – "Demolition" (1982) and "Sick" (1984)
• Victoria Wood As Seen on TV – "The Making of Acorn Antiques" as Marion Clune (Producer) (1985)
• Intimate Contact – Becca Crichton (1987)
• Lovejoy – "One Born Every Minute" episode as Joanna (1991)
• Red Dwarf – "Quarantine" episode as Dr. Hildegarde Lanstrom (1992)
• Lipstick on Your Collar – as Aunt Vickie (1993)
• Martin Chuzzlewit – as Mrs. Todgers (1994)
• Pie in the Sky – as Margaret Crabbe (1994–1997)
• Inspector Morse – "Death Is Now My Neighbour" episode as Angela Storrs (1997)
• Let Them Eat Cake – as Madame Vigée-Lebrun (1999)
• Midsomer Murders – the episodes "Judgement Day" as Rosemary Furman (2000), "Left For Dead" as Lynne Fox (2008) and "Schooled in Murder" as Sylvia Mountford (2013)
• Foyle's War – "The White Feather" episode as Margaret Ellis (2002)
• French and Saunders – several episodes (1998 and 2004)
• Born and Bred – Phyllis Woolf (2002–2005)
• Sensitive Skin as Veronica Dorkins (2005–2007)
• Jam & Jerusalem (2006–2009) – Eileen
• New Tricks – "Dockers" episode as Rose Dyer (2006)
• My Family as Mrs Philbin (2008)
• Lark Rise to Candleford – Mrs Herring (2009)
• Whites – Celia (2010)
• 32 Brinkburn Street (2011) – Elizabeth
• Stella (2012) – Meg
• Chewing Gum (2015–2017) – Esther
• EastEnders (2017–2018) – Joyce Murray, 54 episodes
• Father Brown – "The Whistle in the Dark" episode as Dorothy Parnell (2019)
• Elizabeth Is Missing – Elizabeth (2019)
• Ten Percent – Stella Hart (2022)
• Sister Boniface Mysteries – Vivienne Bonham-Crane (2023)
• Rivals - Lady Gosling (2024)

Theatre

• The Heiress – as Aunt Lavinia (National Theatre) (2000)
• The Importance of Being Earnest – as Lady Bracknell (2005)
• Relative Values – as the Countess of Marshwood (Salisbury Playhouse production) (2005)
• The History Boys – replaced Frances de la Tour as Mrs. Lintott (National Theatre) (2006)
• Noises Off – as Dotty Otley (UK Touring Production) (2008)
• Hay Fever – as Judith Bliss (West Yorkshire Playhouse) (2010)

External links

• Maggie Steed at IMDb
• "The Miserables", at IMDb
• "Theatre: Debut – Maggie Steed" Interview by David Benedict in The Independent (London), 22 March 2000
• The History Boys on Broadway Archived 4 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• "Review: Relative Values" at bbc.co.uk