Film Celebrities & Broadcasters of Greater Manchester

Dame Judi Dench OBE

(Born 1934)
Judi Dench was born on the 9th December 1934 in York, can fairly be described as our greatest living actress by popular and professional consent. Her father worked as a doctor in Tyldesley where she lived with her family for a while before moving back to Yorkshire. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She made her stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic Company's Liverpool production of 'Hamlet' in 1957 and soon established herself as one of Britain's most distinguished classical actresses.
Performances included 'Twelfth Night', 'Henry V', 'Measure for Measure', 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'The Double Dealer', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'She Stoops to Conquer' and 'Romeo & Juliet'. Later she worked atthe Nottingham Playhouse and the Oxford Playhouse. In 1961 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (the RSC), and appeared in her first film 'The Third Secret' in 1964, followed by 'A Study in Terror' in 1965, 'Four in The Morning', 'He Who Rides A Tiger' and 'Days to Come' in 1966. She was first seen by American audiences as Titania in the RSC's 1968 TV production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. During the 1970's apart from raising a family with husband Michael Williams, she made two films - 'Luther' in 1973 and 'Dead Cert' in 1974.
A long line of television appearances followed, which introduced her to a wider audience - these included 'The Comedy of Errors', 'On Giant's Shoulders', 'Macbeth', ' Love in a Cold Climate' and 'A Fine Romance' (opposite her husband Michael) which earned her the BAFTA Best TV Actress Award in 1981.
Other appearances included Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', 'Saigon: Year of the Cat', 'Talking To A Stranger', 'The Browning Version', ' Mr and Mrs Edgehill', 'Ghosts', 'Behaving Badly', 'Can You Hear Me Thinking?' and 'Absolute Hell'.
More recently, she appeared in the extremely popular television comedy series 'As Time Goes By' (with Geoffrey Palmer) - the series ran from 1993 to 1999. Other films have included 'Wetherby' in 1985, '84 Charing Cross Road' in 1986, 'A Room with a View' in 1986 (which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress), 'A Handful of Dust' in 1988, 'Henry V' in 1989, and 'Jack and Sarah' in 1995.
In 1995 she took over the role of 'M' in the James Bond films 'Golden Eye' and 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. This was followed by the lead role as Queen Victoria in 'Mrs Brown' in 1997 for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Actress, a Scottish BAFTA award for Best Actress, and a Golden Globe award for Best Actress. In 1998 she played Arabella in the film 'Tea with Mussolini' and as Queen Elizabeth I for an Oscar-winning cameo role in 'Shakespeare in Love'.
In 1970 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and was created Dame of the British Empire in 1988. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough, Warwick, York and the Open University.
In 2000 Dame Judi received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Oxford University. Also in 2000 she played Amande Voizin in the film 'Chocolat', and in 2001 portrayed novelist Irish Murdoch in the film 'Iris'.
Her husband Michael sadly died on 12th January 2001 after a long battle with lung cancer. Judi Dench remains one of the nations most respected and beloved dames of the stage, television and screen. She appeared in Noel Coward's 'The Importance of Being Erarnest' which opened in the UK in September 2002.
Her latest film appearances have included her reprise role as 'M' in the Bond films as well as leading roles in "Ladies in Lavender" and "Chronicles of Riddick".

Lynda Lee-Potter MBE

(1934-2004)
Born Lynda Berrison (though some sources have it as Higginson) in 1934 in Leigh Road, Leigh, Wigan, from a mining family. As a young woman she became a drama school graduate and married a doctor, the son of Air Marshal Sir Patrick Lee-Potter. Once labelled as 'Britain's Most Famous Woman Columnist'. Best known as a popular journalist for the Daily Mail and for cutting journalistic wit, no nonesense common sense attitudes and hatred of all pompousness.
A self-confessed snob from a working class background, and having moved up through a good grammar school education, her book 'Class Act - How to beat the British Class System', described by critics as "… a wonderful mix of autobiography and witty social analysis", proved a best seller. She was voted Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards in March 2000. She had three children, all of whom are journalists and authors, and lived in London and Dorset. She died on 20th October 2004 after a long period suffering from a brain tumour.

John Peel OBE

(1939-2004)
John Peel was thought by many to have been one of the most important figures in contemporary British music. A veteran DJ, and last survivor of the original BBC Radio 1 presenters, he was a familiar face and voice to the nation - his laconic style and northern accent was immediately recognisable to everybody. He had hosted live performances including Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s, The Clash and The Smiths in the 1970s and 80s. He was one of the first DJs to give radio air time to punk, reggae and hip-hop musicians, long before they had been absorbed into the mainstream, and became a music icon with his groundbreaking 'Peel Sessions'.
Born in 1939 in Heswall near Chester, on the Wirral Peninsula of Cheshire, (and not in Liverpool, as some would have it), he went to America after completing his National Service in 1962 and first worked at WWR Radio in Dallas. He came back in 1967 to work on pirate radio ships anchored just outside British waters. Later he went on to pioneer the new BBC Radio 1, and remained with the station from its inception until his death. Recently he had presented 'Home Truths' on Radio 4, which had earned three Sony Awards in its first year. He regularly came top in music paper Best DJ polls, and won the 1993 Sony Award as, 'Broadcaster of the Year'; in 1994 he was named 'Godlike Genius' by the NME (New Musical Express) music newspaper. He also acquired several Honorary Degrees from universities across the country and was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work. In April 2003 the Transworld Company had agreed to pay a rumoured £1.6 million for his memoirs, which were planned to be published in 2005.
John Peel died of a heart attack in his 65th year on the 26th October 2004 whilst on a 'working holiday' in Cuzco, Peru, and is survived by his wife Sheila and four children.
He also left behind a personal collection of around 26,000 LP records (all catalogued), between 30,000 and 40,000 seven inch singles, and a similar number of CDs - all reportedly kept in sheds in his garden.