
Acting
Eileen O'Brien
Born
1945-12-04 (80)
Place of birth
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
39 titles
Eileen O'Brien is an English actress who has played a wide variety of roles in British television over many years. She appeared in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale as Beattie Dixon in 2013, having previously appeared in the show as teacher Bridget Burgess from 2006 to 2007. From 1987 to 1988, O'Brien had a recurring role in the BBC soap opera EastEnders; she played Edie Smith, the mother of Mary Smith (Linda Davidson). O'Brien has also appeared in The Crezz, Casualty, Doctors, The Royal, Where the Heart Is, Brookside, Heartbeat and Coronation Street. She later appeared in several films, including Between Two Women in 2000. In May 2009, she played Anne in the BBC miniseries Moving On. In 2013, s…
Known for
4.3The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.
EastEnders
1985
5.8Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999
6.2Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
Casualty
1986
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
8.2Sherlock Holmes, along with his friend Dr. Watson, uses his abilities to take on cases by private clients and those that the Scotland Yard are unable to solve.
Sherlock Holmes
1984
7.6Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.
A Touch of Frost
1992
Film credits
2020s · 2 titles
NR80-year-old Betty waits for her true love, Jean. She remembers their painful break-up in 1960’s Liverpool. She wasn’t brave enough to be with a woman. Will their love be rekindled?
Betty and Jean
2023
NRSingle mother and immigrant Sonia Diaconescu works at a sheltered accommodation scheme. A resident of the scheme has made an official complaint against her, rousing the elderly community into a mob of angry and fearful citizens whose intolerance is palpable.
Majority
2020
2010s · 4 titles
5.5A profile of John Lennon in the late 1960s as the Beatles are set to fall apart.
Lennon Naked
2010
6.0Counted among his greatest tragedies, Shakespeare’s unsettling combination of warring soldiers and ‘weird sisters’ is brought to life in this post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Scottish play. This production, directed by Gemma Bodinetz and starring David Morrissey in the title role, was captured by Digital Theatre live at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.
Macbeth
2011
4.5An estranged couple's vacation to save their troubled relationship goes awry when they find themselves under attack from the walking dead
Before Dawn
2013
5.8Sybil works at an undertakers. It’s a lonely job, with few perks, so she takes solace where she can…
Sybil
2018
1990s · 3 titles
6.4Yorkshire writer Kate finds out her biological clock is ticking down the same day that her husband leaves her. To get over the financial crisis this creates she takes in car-dealer Dave. He's homeless as Kate's husband has moved in with his wife. This leaves the problem of how to get promptly pregnant. Surely not with increasingly interesting Dave. They can't even agree on a baby's name - he thinks Fanny is silly and she finds Elvis, well, inconceivable.
Fanny & Elvis
1999
7.0Sherlock Holmes investigates strange and tragic happenings in a village that appear linked to a man who seems to be like a vampire.
The Last Vampyre
1993
5.5Three guardian angels help three souls evaluate their past lives.
Angels
1992
1980s · 3 titles
5.4When his young daughter disappears, her father refuses to accept that she is dead and sets out on a journey to find her.
Runners
1983
6.4In the summer of 1947, Britain prepares to commemorate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. To get around food-rationing laws, Dr. Charles Swaby, accountant Henry Allardyce and solicitor Frank Lockwood are fattening a black-market pig for the big day. Egged on by his wife, meek Gilbert Chilvers steals the swine, but the couple must conceal it from inspector Morris Wormold.
A Private Function
1984
6.5A destitute WWI veteran is hired to help carry out restoration work on a medieval mural in a rural Yorkshire church. While living in the quiet village, he forms a close friendship with an archaeologist and begins to come to terms with his trauma.
A Month in the Country
1987
Series credits
4.3The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.
EastEnders
1985
5.8Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999
6.2Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
Casualty
1986
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
8.2Sherlock Holmes, along with his friend Dr. Watson, uses his abilities to take on cases by private clients and those that the Scotland Yard are unable to solve.
Sherlock Holmes
1984
7.6Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.
A Touch of Frost
1992
6.5Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.
Peak Practice
1993
7.5Lee is a childish northerner who lives in a fancy penthouse apartment in London who goes through a variety of jobs such as a janitor and ice cream man, as well as attempting relationships with female flatmates. His best mate, Daily Mail reading, middle-class citizen Tim is always there to stop Lee from getting in trouble, or not? Mayhem is never far away with cleaner Barbara who has never done an honest day's work in her life.
Not Going Out
2006
7.1Frank Hathaway, a hardboiled private investigator, and his rookie sidekick Lu Shakespeare form the unlikeliest of partnerships as they investigate the secrets of rural Warwickshire's residents.
Shakespeare & Hathaway - Private Investigators
2018
7.3Moving On is a British television series set in contemporary Britain consisting of standalone dramas all sharing the theme of someone going through some kind of change in their life and moving on.
Moving On
2009
5.6The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit. Spanning five short series from 1999 and 2003, it follows the London Metropolitan police force's vice squad, where prostitution, underage sex, and such organised crime are regular occurrences. Most episodes end where the main villain is caught but often not in a 'naturally' concluded way expected from other TV dramas, and often ending with more unanswered questions than answered. Leader DI Pat Chappel struggles to manage the balance between his private and professional lives — as do the rest of the team. Working in the seedy underworld leads to a continual dilemma — the tension between the Vice Squad and vice-related crimes runs throughout the series and gives the show a rich viewing experience. The line of the team staying on the right side of the law is often blurred, as almost every member at different points submits briefly or permanently to the dubious temptations, sometimes with drastic consequences.
The Vice
1999
8.2A young couple from Merseyside and their off again/on again relationship.
Watching
1987
6.5Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini and Stratton are tasked with the cases that nobody else can solve. It challenges their sense of what is real and what is not. Houdini is a skeptic, while Doyle believes in the unseen. Their diverse viewpoints make solving crime a challenge and often Stratton is put in the middle. The trio will take on cases that involve vampires, ghosts, monsters and poltergeists…or are they a ruse to conceal murder?
Houdini & Doyle
2016
6.5Introduced by renowned English actor Edward Woodward, In Suspicious Circumstances is an anthology of reenactments depicting real-life murder mysteries, some famous and some obscure, exploring cases with elements of miscarriage of justice, unsolved mysteries, and unusual circumstances, often spanning different historical periods.
In Suspicious Circumstances
1991
5.8Rockliffe's Babies is a British television police procedural devised by Richard O'Keefe, and starring Ian Hogg as maverick Detective Sergeant Alan Rockliffe, who is assigned to train seven young recruits to the CID, all fresh out of uniform. Under his irascible guidance, it is hoped that they will blossom into full-blown detectives. But Rockliffe is human – so human that he makes more mistakes than the 'Babies' he's supposed to be training. A follow-up series, Rockliffe's Folly, follows Rockliffe through his relocation to Wessex, dealing with rural crimes as part of a new team of investigators. The seven episode third series proved to be the last, with many citing a change in the programme's formula for the heavy ratings decline. Many viewers stated that the success of the two Babies series came not from Rockliffe himself, but from the popular ensemble cast.
Rockliffe's Babies
1987
6.6Follows two rival barristers' chambers in Manchester, England, contrasting defence Jack Roper's struggling firm with his former mentor, prosecutor Laurence Scammel's more established chambers, and exploring their personal and professional rivalry through complex legal cases.
New Street Law
2006
9.5Merseybeat follows the fortunes of Newton Park police force, as the officers struggle to balance their demanding work and home lives.
Merseybeat
2001
NRComedy series about the everyday events in a small town in Northern England.
Pickersgill People
1978
7.2When Leanne and Matty discover they are both robbing from the safe at the inner-city casino they work in, their lives are set on a collision course; with each other, the local gangster they're stealing from, and the police.
The Cage
2026
6.2Eyes Down is a comedy starring Paul O'Grady as Ray Temple, the manager of a bingo hall in Liverpool, England called The Rio, although the series was filmed in Rayners Lane in London. Although it had moderate ratings, the programme only lasted for two series until it was cancelled by the BBC in 2004. The show was written by Angela Clarke and directed by Christine Gernon.
Eyes Down
2003
7.8Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac layers Dixie, Chrissie, Loggo and Yosser, and their revered older friend, retired longshoreman and union leader, George Malone. As they struggle to make ends meet in a depressed economy, and to hold together their financially battered families, they are harrassed by the petty bureaucrats of the DHSS. But the lumbering investigational juggernaut is, both comically and tragically, guided by drivers with only a provisional license.
Boys from the Blackstuff
1982
6.2Chiller is a five-part British horror anthology television series, produced by Yorkshire Television, broadcast on ITV from 9 March to 27 April 1995. Described by The Guardian as ITV's 'answer to The X Files', the series is inspired by, but unconnected to, the 1991 Channel 4 thriller Gray Cray Dolls, which broadcast under the Chiller banner. The series featured writing contributions from renowned playwrights Stephen Gallagher, Glenn Chandler and Anthony Horowitz.
Chiller
1995
6.5Scully was a British television drama with some comedy elements set in the city of Liverpool, England, that originated from a BBC Play For Today episode "Scully's New Years Eve". Originally broadcast on Channel Four in 1984, the single series was spread over six half-hour episodes plus a one-hour final episode. It was written by playwright Alan Bleasdale. The drama is notable for featuring many of the Liverpool football club first-team squad of that era. Francis Scully is a teenage boy who has his heart set on gaining a trial match for Liverpool to hopefully fulfil his ambition of playing for the club. Francis, in everyday situations during his waking hours, occasionally "sees" famous Liverpool players such as Kenny Dalglish when they are not really there. These dream-like sequences recur throughout the episodes. The main plotline is the efforts of Scully's school teachers to persuade Scully to appear in the school pantomime which they attempt by promising him a trial with his beloved Liverpool if he will cooperate. When Scully and his friends are not in school making trouble for the teachers and the school caretaker, they are seen roaming the local streets upsetting the neighbours and getting into trouble with the police. Scully sometimes has visions of the school caretaker appearing as a vampire due to the caretaker's nickname being Dracula. These frequent waking dream sequences give the show a somewhat surreal atmosphere.
Scully
1984
7.0Goldie's teenage life is turned upside down when her family flies from America to the UK to move in with their Grandpa Maury and his three ‘70 something’ roommates.
Goldie's Oldies
2021
7.8A young teacher begins work at a tough Liverpool comprehensive, where he has to deal with racism, homophobia and his students' poor backgrounds.
Hearts and Minds
1995
7.8Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.
The Royal
2003

