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Sheila Hancock — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Theatre

Hancock worked in repertory during the 1950s and made her West End debut in 1958, replacing Joan Sims in the play Breath of Spring. She then appeared in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop production of Make Me An Offer in 1959, and her other early West End appearances included Peter Cook's revue One Over the Eight with Kenneth Williams in 1961, and starring in Rattle of a Simple Man in 1962. She recalled that in One over the Eight she had been egged on by Irving Davies's exhortation as dance captain, "Eyes, teeth, and tits, darlings – and sparkle, sparkle, sparkle!"

In 1965, Hancock made her Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr Sloane. In 1978, she played Miss Hannigan in the original London cast of the musical Annie at the Victoria Palace Theatre and two years later, she played Mrs Lovett in the original London production of the musical Sweeney Todd at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; her portrayal was described as having "caught the love-story element perfectly."

Hancock has appeared in The Winter's Tale, Titus Andronicus and A Delicate Balance for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). At the National Theatre she has appeared in Neil Bartlett's In Extremis/ De Profundis, The Cherry Orchard and The Duchess of Malfi. She was also the first woman director of the RSC touring company, directing A Midsummer Night's Dream and was the first woman to direct in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre with The Critic. She was also associate artistic director of the Cambridge Theatre Company.

Hancock took the role of Rose in the West Yorkshire Playhouse's 1993 production of Gypsy; a reviewer commented that she "certainly had the measure of Rose... 'Everything's coming up roses' brought the first hint of true pathos into the show", while in the final scene "her wild fluctuations between self-belief and self-doubt ended in tear-jerking self-awareness".

In 2006, Hancock played the role of Fräulein Schneider in the West End revival of the musical Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre. She won the Laurence Olivier Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award, for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical. In 2009, she spent over a year playing Mother Superior in Sister Act the Musical at the London Palladium for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award.

In 2013, Hancock starred alongside Lee Evans and Keeley Hawes in the comedy Barking in Essex at Wyndham's Theatre.

In 2016, Hancock starred with Jenna Russell in the UK premiere of the musical Grey Gardens at Southwark Playhouse. In 2018, she played Maude in Harold and Maude at the Charing Cross Theatre, London. In 2019, Hancock starred in the musical This Is My Family at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.

Television

Hancock's first big television role was as Carole Taylor in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade in the early 1960s. She also played the lead roles in the sitcoms The Bed-Sit Girl, Mr Digby Darling and Now Take My Wife. Her other television credits include Doctor Who (playing a parody of Margaret Thatcher in The Happiness Patrol), Kavanagh QC (opposite her husband, John Thaw), Gone to the Dogs, Brighton Belles, EastEnders, The Russian Bride, Bedtime, Fortysomething, Feather Boy, Bleak House, New Tricks, Hustle and The Catherine Tate Show. In 2008, she played the part of a terminally ill patient who travelled to Switzerland for an assisted suicide in one of The Last Word monologues for the BBC, in a role that was written especially for her by Hugo Blick. In 2009, she played Liz in The Rain Has Stopped, the first episode of the BBC anthology series Moving On.

Hancock has also presented several documentaries. In 2010, she presented Suffragette City (part of A History of the World series), telling the story of the suffragette movement through objects from the Museum of London's collection. In 2011, she presented Sheila Hancock Brushes Up: The Art of Watercolours, exploring the history of watercolour via beautiful yet little-known works of professional and amateur artists. In 2013 she presented, as part of the ITV Perspectives documentary series, Perspectives: Sheila Hancock – The Brilliant Brontë Sisters, examining the writers' upbringing and the sources of their inspiration.

In December 2012, Hancock took part in a Christmas special edition of the BBC programme Strictly Come Dancing.

In January 2016, Hancock made a guest appearance in an episode of the BBC medical drama Casualty for its 30th anniversary. From December 2016 until its conclusion in January 2019, she starred alongside Dawn French, Emilia Fox and Iain Glen in all three seasons of the Sky One comedy drama series Delicious.

In January 2017, Hancock made a guest appearance in an episode of the Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour alongside her stepdaughter Abigail Thaw.

In 2020, Hancock co-presented Great Canal Journeys for Channel 4 with Gyles Brandreth, with whom she had previously appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox. In 2021, she appeared in more Great Canal Journeys as well as the Sky One fantasy drama A Discovery of Witches as Goody Alsop, and as Eileen in ITV's Unforgotten.

In 2023, Hancock played Liz Zettl in the BBC true-life crime drama miniseries The Sixth Commandment.