Sue Johnston

For the deputy provost of Halifax College, see Halifax College.

Sue Johnston
Born	Susan Wright (1943-12-07) 7 December 1943 Warrington, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1980-present
Television	Brookside The Royle Family Waking the Dead Jam and Jerusalem Coronation Street Being Eileen Downton Abbey
Spouse(s)	Neil Johnston (1967-Before 1976) David Pammenter (1976-1980)
Children	1

Susan Johnston OBE (née Wright, born 7 December 1943) is an English actress known for playing Sheila Grant in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside (1982–90), Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy The Royle Family (1998–2012), Grace Foley in the BBC drama Waking the Dead (2000–11), Gloria Price in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2012–14) and Miss Denker in the ITV drama Downton Abbey (2014–15). She won the 2000 British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actress and was nominated for the 2000 BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy Performance for The Royle Family.

Early life

Johnston was born in Warrington, Cheshire and grew up in Prescot, Lancashire. She was the daughter of Fred and Margaret Jane Wright. She was educated at Whiston Infants School, Eccleston Park Junior School and Prescot and Huyton Grammar School for Girls which she left aged 17 after one year of her A-level course, having decided to become an actress.

After working as a Higher Grade tax inspector, when her boyfriend was one of the pop group The Swinging Blue Jeans, she worked for Brian Epstein. From the age of 21, Johnston attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Acting career

Johnston made her television debut, aged 38, with a minor recurring role on Coronation Street in the summer of 1982. She played the role of Mrs. Chadwick, the wife of a bookmaker.

From 1982 to 1990, she appeared as Sheila Grant in the soap opera Brookside. She appeared in the show's first ever episode on 2 November 1982 – aired on the day that Channel 4 went on air – and her last episode was aired in September 1990, when the character was written out of the series following her divorce from Bobby Grant (Ricky Tomlinson) and remarriage to Billy Corkhill (John McArdle).

Since then she has appeared in many drama series and films, including Inspector Morse, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Brassed Off and My Uncle Silas. In 1992 Johnston gave a tour de force performance in the three-part award winning drama Goodbye Cruel World, in which she portrayed a woman coming to terms with a muscle-wasting illness. She was supported by Alun Armstrong as her husband and Jonny Lee Miller.

Johnston is also well known for her role as Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy series The Royle Family, appearing with her former on-screen husband in Brookside, Ricky Tomlinson, from the show's inception in September 1998 until it ended at Christmas 2000. She also appeared in a one-off special which aired in October 2006. From 2000 to 2011 Johnston starred in the television series Waking the Dead, in which she played the role of psychological profiler Grace Foley, alongside Trevor Eve.

In 2004, she appeared in one episode of the series, Who Do You Think You Are?, in which she traced her family tree. She starred in Jennifer Saunders's comedy drama Jam & Jerusalem on BBC One, alongside Joanna Lumley, Maggie Steed and David Mitchell. The first series aired in 2006, the second series began on New Year's Day 2008 and the third in August 2009. Also in 2008, she played Affery Flintwinch in the BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit.

In May 2008 it was confirmed Johnston would return as Barbara Royle for another episode of The Royle Family, which aired on Christmas Day 2008 on BBC One. The show returned for further Christmas specials in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

Johnston shared a role with Billie Piper in the television adaptation of A Passionate Woman which aired on BBC One on 11 April 2010.

On 2 April 2012, Coronation Street series producer Phil Collinson announced Johnston had joined the soap opera as Gloria, the mother of Stella Price (played by Michelle Collins). She made her first screen appearance on 5 September 2012. It was announced in June 2013 that Johnston would leave the soap opera in 2014 to pursue other acting roles. She departed on 21 February 2014.

In December 2011 she played Eileen Lewis in the BBC one-off drama Lapland, a role which she reprised in 2013 for a series, Being Eileen.

In May 2014 it was announced that Johnston will guest star in the fifth series of the period drama Downton Abbey. She will play Denker, a lady's maid to the Dowager Countess, played by Dame Maggie Smith.

Johnston currently portrays Julie in the BBC Radio 4 series Love in Recovery.

Personal life

Johnston has campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party and has been a long-time gay rights campaigner. She is a supporter of Liverpool F.C. and Warrington RLFC.

In 1967, she married her first husband Neil Johnston and became pregnant at the age of 24. She suffered a miscarriage shortly after and the couple later divorced but she kept his surname as her professional name. She has one son Joel from her second marriage to David Pammenter. She has one grandchild.

Despite playing the role of heavy smoker Barbara Royle in The Royle Family, Johnston gave up smoking in 1978, but had to smoke low-tar cigarettes whilst playing the role; however, she is now completely anti-smoking.

Johnston was appointed OBE in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours.

In November 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by University of Chester at Chester Cathedral.

In 1989 Johnston, assisted by Lesley Thomson, published her first book, a memoir titled Hold on to the Messy Times. In 2011, she published another memoir titled Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother.

In 1970, Johnston was sexually attacked at the age of 27 which inspired her storyline in Brookside as Sheila Grant, where she was raped.

In her autobiography, Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother, she states that she was originally going to be called Margaret Jane Wright, after her mother and grandmother, but her father thought that it would be best to call her Susan.

Filmography

Film

Title	Year	Role	Directed by
Brassed Off	1996	Vera	Mark Herman
Preaching to the Perverted	1997	Esmeralda	Stuart Urban
Face	1997	Alice	Antonia Bird
New Year's Day	2001	Mrs. Fisher	Suri Krishnamma
Imagine Me & You	2005	Ella	Ol Parker
500 Miles North	2011	Stein	Luke Massey
Golden Years	2016	Nancy	John Miller

Television

Title	Year	Role	Notes
Coronation Street	1982	Mrs. Chadwick	3 episodes
Brookside	1982–90	Sheila Grant	118 episodes
Goodbye Cruel World	1982	Barbara Grade	Miniseries - 3 episodes
In Suspicious Circumstances	1992	Edith Rosse	Episode 2.2 - "Maundy Money"
Inspector Morse	1992	Mrs. Bailey	Episode 6.4 - "Absolute Conviction
Screenplay	1992	Miriam Johnson	Episode 7.4 - "Bitter Harvest"
A Touch of Frost	1992	Phyllis Bowman	Episode 1.3 - "Conclusions"
Full Stretch	1993	Grace Robbins	6 episodes
Luv	1993	Terese Craven	18 episodes
Performance	1994	Mistress Overdone	Episode 4.2 - "Measure for Measure"
Medics	1992–95	Ruth Parry	29 episodes
Into the Fire	1996	Lyn	Miniseries - 3 episodes
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates	1996	Helga Allowby	Episode 2.2 - "Poison Pen"
Crime Traveller	1997	Kate Grisham	8 episodes
Verdict	1998	Hazel De Vere Q.C.	Episode 1.3 - "The Doctor's Opinion"
Duck Patrol	1998	Val Rutland	6 episodes
The Jump	1998	Maeve Brunos	4 episodes
Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll	1999	Irma Brookes	Miniseries
My Uncle Silas	2001–03	Mrs. Betts	9 episodes
Cutting It	2004	Caroline Ferraday	Episode 3.4
The Street	2006	Brenda McDermott	Episode 1.2 - "Stan"
Little Dorrit	2008	Affery Flintwinch	Miniseries - 7 episodes
Jam & Jerusalem	2006–09	Sal Vine	3 seasons - 16 episodes
A Passionate Woman	2010	Betty	2 episodes
Waking the Dead	2000–11	Dr. Grace Foley	9 seasons - 92 episodes
Sugartown	2011	Margery	3 episodes
Gates	2012	Miss Hunter	5 episodes
The Royle Family	1998–2000 2006–12	Barbara Royle	25 episodes
Being Eileen	2013	Eileen Lewis	7 episodes
Coronation Street	2012–14	Gloria Price	169 episodes
Downton Abbey	2014–15	Miss Denker	8 episodes
Rovers	2016	Doreen

Television film

Title	Year	Role	Notes
The Things You Do for Love: Against the Odds	1998	Pat Phoenix
Score	2001	Maggie
Happy Together	2002	Val
The Turn of the Screw	2009	Sarah Grose	Broadcast on BBC One
Lapland	2011	Eileen Lewis

Additional credits

• Brookside: The Lost Weekend ... Sheila Corkhill (1997 video special)
• Brookside: Friday the 13th ... Sheila Corkhill (1998 video special)
• The Unseen Royals ... Narrator (1999 TV documentary)
• Caring for the Recently Deceased ... Marjoram Bryon (2014 short)

External links

• Sue Johnston at the Internet Movie Database