Patricia Hodge

Hodge was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.[1] The daughter of Eric and his wife Marion (née Phillips), the manager and manageress of the Royal Hotel in Grimsby, [2] Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St Helen's School, Northwood, Middlesex, before attending Maria Grey College in Twickenham (later becoming part of Brunel University London), to train as a teacher.[3] She taught English and drama at Russell County Primary School in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, whilst also applying to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[4] She started at LAMDA when she was 22, being awarded on graduation the Eveline Evans Award for Best Actress.[5]

Hodge made her professional stage debut in the Howard Barker play No-One Was Saved at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 1971. She made her West End debut in Rookery Nook in 1972, and worked with Bob Fosse in 1973 on Pippin. However, when applying for television work she found she had become classed as a theatre actress. Having made the breakthrough in the role of Phyllida (Trant) Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey, she found when trying to make the occasional return to theatre work that she had been classed as a television actress.

She has appeared in roles as diverse as in The Naked Civil Servant opposite John Hurt, shortly after she featured in the BBC's 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2 starring Julie Covington, Bernard Cribbins and Paul Jones.[6] It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977.[7] She featured as Myra Arundel in the 1984 BBC version of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, as Margaret Thatcher in The Falklands Play, and in 2007 as Betty, the wife of tycoon Robert Maxwell, in the BBC TV drama Maxwell opposite David Suchet.[8] She took the female lead in the 1983 film, Betrayal (based on Harold Pinter's play Betrayal), a roman à clef derived from the playwright's affair with broadcaster Joan Bakewell.

She co-starred with Dame Judi Dench in the 1995 London revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music as Countess Charlotte Malcom.

She was nominated for a BAFTA for her role in a television adaptation of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac in 1987, and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the production of Money at the Royal National Theatre.[9] Hodge is an Honorary Graduate (DLitt) of Brunel University and one of the founder members of the Brunel Club.[10] From 2009 to 2015, she played a comedy role in the BBC sitcom Miranda, as the mother of the eponymous main character. Hodge reprised the role alongside the rest of the cast for the 2017 Royal Variety Performance. In 2012 she toured in Christopher Luscombe's revival of Dandy Dick, starring alongside Nicholas Provost. She is joint President of Grimsby's Caxton Theatre.

Hodge married music publisher Peter Owen on 31 July 1976 in Tonbridge. The couple have two sons: Alexander Richard Charles (born March 1989); and Edward Frederick James (born January 1992).

Hodge was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama.[11]

• Patricia Hodge at IMDb