Susan Elizabeth Jenkins was born on the 31st of July 1958 in Anfield, Liverpool, the oldest of two daughters born to a Liverpool Transport employee father, Albert, and his mail order manageress wife Marjorie. She trained at the Shelagh Elliott Clarke School of Dance and Drama and after graduation Sue became an assistant stage manager at Chesterfield Civic Theatre. Before becoming a professional actress at 18 she worked in repertory theatres across the UK for the first 11 years of her career playing everything from Alan Ayckbourn to Shakespeare. Sue says, "When I came into the business you'd go in as an acting ASM (assistant stage manager) for one year in theatre and work your way up to leading lady, learning your craft on the job. Working in the theatre was all I'd wanted to do from the age of five. I just wanted to be on the stage. It’s really weird because I was quite a shy little girl and quite sensitive but really wanted to play other characters. That was my draw to the theatre. I just studied and read every play I could. I went to drama school when I was 16 and was touring by the time I was 18." Whilst working at Oldham Coliseum Alan Bleasdale wrote Doreen in 'Having a Ball' for her. She eventually played the role at York Theatre Royal opposite her future husband, David Fleeshman; it was the first time they met. They married in 1978 and have three children together during their four decades of marriage. Emily, Richard and Rosie have all followed in their parents' footsteps and launched careers in the industry.
After appearing as a teenager in a TV movie 'Two Headed Eagle' (1961) and as Dianne Kemp, a naughty school girl, in 'Z-Cars' (1974), she appeared in 12 episodes of 'How We Used To Live' (1984-85) and in 3 episodes of 'The Beiderbecke Affair' (1985) before coming to prominence in 1985 when she joined the cast of the top-rated British soap opera 'Coronation Street' (1985-88), playing barmaid Gloria Todd in 238 episodes. She said, "I had a great storyline with Mark Eden who played Alan Bradley. The character was dating Rita and Gloria at the same time and there were some terrific scenes to play when the truth finally came out and poor Gloria was cast aside in favour of Rita."
Leaving the 'soap' in 1988 after becoming pregnant with her second child, Richard, who was to play Craig Harris in the soap from 2002 until 2006, Sue returned to television in 7 episodes of the series 'Coasting' (1990) with Peter Howitt. Then in 1991 she entered another popular soap opera, 'Brookside (1991-2001). Her character Jackie originally was going to be in just two episodes, but stayed a lot longer and was normally found screaming at her 'up to no good' husband Jimmy Corkhill. Jackie was one feisty woman who had fights with just about everyone in Brookside Close. In one storyline she threw her daughter’s husband out on his ear after confronting him with the alleged rape of her daughter Lindsay, played by Claire Sweeney. She also famously had a fight in the middle of the street with nosy neighbour Bev who had been bad mouthing Lindsay. Much of her screen time involved picking up the pieces when husband Jimmy let her down, but she always stood by her man until they separated in 2001. She suffered when Jimmy became addicted to drugs time and time again and when her son Little Jimmy was murdered by drug dealers. Her on-screen relationship with Jimmy, played by Dean Sullivan, won a soap award in 2000 as they became one of the nation’s best loved TV couples.
After leaving 'Brookside', Sue continued to work steadily, in theatre and television, making appearances on TV, including 'In Deep' (2002), 'Holby City' (2002-05), 'Dalziel and Pascoe' (2006), 'Emmerdale Farm' (2008), and 'Doctors' (2003-16) opposite her daughter Emily. She had also returned to theatre, playing at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 'The People Are Friendly' (2002), Esther in Arthur Miller's 'The Price' (2005) at the Library Theatre, Manchester and 'Maybe Tomorrow' (2007) at the Royal Exchange, Manchester and also appeared in the film, 'Blue Collars and Buttercups' (2007). Regularly heard on BBC Radio, she has recorded over 200 radio plays and radio adaptations of classic serials over the years, including 'Middlemarch', 'Villette' and 'Wuthering Heights' with Derek Jacobi. As a director, Sue wrote, produced and directed 'Night of Stars 1 and 2' at the Palace Theatre, Manchester raising over £70,000 to build an orphanage in Thailand for orphaned children and to help children's charities in the UK. She directed 'Alladin' (2006) and produced her son Richard's first concert in 2006 at the Tameside Hippodrome and directed yet another musical extravaganza 'Gala Night of Stars' there. She directed other pantomimes, 'Snow White' at Grimsby Auditorium and 'Cinderella' at Southport Floral Hall Theatre (2012). Sue was chosen by 'This Is Your Life' (2001) and voted 'Woman of the Year' in 2008 for her Charity work. In 2010 she starred in the 3-month Autumn National Tour of 'The Vagina Monologues', playing in 65 theatres across the country including the Empire Theatre, Liverpool. In June 2014, she produced and directed an open-air production of 'As You Like It' at Plas Coch, Anglesey having directed 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' there in 2013. She played Marc Bolan's mother, Phyllis Feld, in the highly acclaimed UK national tour of '20th Century Boy' (2014).
Producing and directing major pantomimes in the UK and four studio productions at The Lowry Theatre, she directed 'Build a Bonfire' by Trevor Suthers and another Suthers' play, 'Toil and Trouble' (2016), for JB Shorts. In 2017 at Salford Arts Theatre, she directed 'From Heaven to Hell' which tells the story of the Salford, Greater Manchester Pals battalion who fought at the Battle of the Somme in WW1. She also directed 'Virtuoso' by Bill Humble at 3MT Theatre and produced and directed the MTA award-winning 'Narcissist in the Mirror' (written by and starring her daughter Rosie) and 'Bette & Joan' (2019) by Anton Burge at the Hope Mikk Theatre.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/04/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-peter.html
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