Sharon Maughan was born on the 22nd of June 1950 in the Liverpool 6 area, “on a street that doesn’t exist any more” she says. The Mughan family (Sharon added the extra 'a') moved to Kirkby when she was four and she attended St Gregory’s girl school. It was her Mum Nora who she credits with supporting her early days. As Sharon said, "Oh my mother didn't know anything about the business at all. So she thought it was the best thing in the world, she wasn’t aware of any of the negatives and she never saw a bad side to it. She was such a dreamer, she was amazing, and from the day I said I wanted to become an actress she made me believe I could. She made me believe I could achieve anything.” So Sharon left in the late 1960s to attend drama school in London seeing it as a way of escaping her background, but often wept with misery and loneliness. Joining RADA at 18 to pursue her acting ambition, upon graduating she gained her Equity Card while playing Ophelia in an Open University tour of 'Hamlet'. She then performed in rep at the Liverpool Playhouse and Chester and won her first television opportunity in the TV drama series 'Eyeless in Gaza' (1971), then in Philip Mackie's 'The Organisation' (1972), starring Peter Egan. This led to episodes of 'The Last of the Baskets' (1972) with Patricia Hayes, 'Z-Cars' (1972) and then 'Justice' (1973) with Margaret Lockwood. In 1973, Sharon was chosen for the role of Rachel Rosing in a Granada TV serialisation of Howard Spring's novel 'Shabby Tiger', appearing in all 7 episodes. This led to Alan Bennett asking her to appear alongside him at the Lyric Theatre (Shaftesbury Ave), London and the Oxford Playhouse in his original production of 'Habeas Corpus' (1973-74) playing 'Felicity Rumpers'. She went on to work with Elaine Strich, playing the title role in 'If You Knew Susie', in the 'Dial M For Murder' (1974) TV series and worked with John Stride in the final series of Yorkshire Television's 'Main Chance' (1975), playing the Nordic 'Inge Lindstrom'. David Mercer's controversial 'Huggy Bear' (1976), with the infamous 'chocasms' scene, was her next television venture.
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| Sharon and Trevor married in 1980 |
It was the Gold Blend adverts, running between 1987 and 1993, that made her a household name however. They starred Sharon with Anthony Head as Sharon and Tony, a couple who begin a slow-burning romance over a cup of the advertised coffee which it is said boosted coffee sales by 40 per cent, making stars of the two leads on both sides of the Atlantic. Sharon is reputed to have made so much money from the campaign that in 1991 the family moved to Los Angeles to capitalise on her high profile. She loved the relaxed lifestyle and continuous sunshine, but worried about the earthquakes and her children turning into 'little Americans'. During that period she made single appearances in 'Inspector Morse' (1989), 'Hannay' (1989) and 'Murder, She Wrote' (1992). As well as playing onstage Billie Dawn in 'Born Yesterday', Anne Daviot in 'Adam Was a Gardener', Nora in 'A Doll's House' at Chichester Festival Theatre, in 1993, she received excellent reviews for her debut directorial production of 'Widowers' Houses' in London. In 1997, she and her husband founded Projector Productions with Charles Haswell. With Trevor as producer, she went on to executive produce and star in 'Cinderella' alongside Kathleen Turner, and executive produce 'Twelfth Night'. Although work didn't flood in when she returned to Britain she was philosophical that the coffee commercial had given her and her family financial freedom and security. Nevertheless, she went to considerable lengths to break free from her sophisticated image - even playing Myra Hindley in a controversial touring play called 'And All the Children Cried', and then in her breakthrough role as Trish, the brassy Liverpudlian mother of ward sister Chrissie (played by Tina Hobley) in the BBC 1 drama 'Holby City' (2003-06). Sharon said "I adored playing her. I had spent so many years playing these classy, repressed, manipulative women that I just loved the freedom of playing someone so unpredictable. You could say I went back to my roots. I certainly had no trouble with the accent as Scouse is my first language." In spite of this, she decided to throw in the towel after three and a half years and was killed off in a crash as she and new screen husband Robert Powell were off on honeymoon.
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| As Trish in Holby City |
Then she appeared in Roger Donaldson's 'The Bank Job' (2008) , quickly followed by guest leads in the BBC's 'Waking the Dead' (2009), starring Trevor Eve as Superintendent Peter Boyd, and 'Kidnap and Ransom' (2011), also starring Trevor. This was followed by films, 'The Babymakers' (2012), 'Flying Home' (2014) and 'The Atticus Institute' (2015), all shot in the USA. On the 19th of February 2014, she was part of the invited audience at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She and Trevor were then asked to perform in front of the Queen in the Investiture Room, along with Hugh Laurie, Sir Tom Courtenay and Dame Helen Mirren. Sharon then appeared with Trevor in her son Jack Eve's debut feature film as writer/director, 'Death of a Farmer' which, having had a screening at the Dinard Film Festival, had its UK Premiere at the Borderlines Film Festival on the 5th of March 2014. In September 2014, she starred in the British premiere of Neil Labute's well received play 'Autobahn' at the King's Head Theatre in Islington. She finished the play with a 30-minute monologue. She later appeared in the film 'Untitled' (2017), playing the drug dealing mastermind controller of a struggling filmmaker and in the short 'Rain Stops Play (2019).
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/04/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-cheryl.html
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