Pauline Quirke

Acting

Pauline Quirke

Born 1959-07-08 · Hackney, London, England, UK

Pauline Perpetua Quirke is a retired English television and film actress, best known for her role as Sharon in the long-running BBC comedy series "Birds of a Feather". In 2025, Quirke's husband announced that she would be retiring from all professional and commercial duties due to a diagnosis of dementia which she had received in 2021.

Acting credits

The Elephant Man poster
8.1

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

The Elephant Man

1980

Beasts: Special Offer poster
8.0

A misfit teenage checkout operator has an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager. At the same shop's cuddly cartoon mascot seems to have come alive and is causing havoc. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Beasts: Special Offer

1976

Our Boy poster
6.4

A parent's grief has no bounds. Our Boy tells the moving and tragic story of one couple’s struggle to come to terms with the disappearance and death of their only son. Woody, Sonia and their son, Lee, live contentedly in West Ham, London. When Lee is killed in a hit-and-run everyone grieves but Woody’s grief has no limit. His best friend, Phil, counsels revenge, while in the view of the ambitious Detective Constable Spence, Woody himself is the prime suspect. Woody searches for a way to react with extraordinary and touching results. Features award-winning performances by Ray Winstone and Pauline Quirke.

Our Boy

1998

Little Dorrit poster
6.4

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

Little Dorrit

1987

The Return of the Soldier poster
6.2

The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitty, or remember their years together. While Baldry attempts to cope with the unfamiliar surroundings of his own home, he seeks out the company of an old flame from his childhood, Margaret Grey. His amnesia also makes him a ready target for the affections of his older cousin, Jenny.

The Return of the Soldier

1983

Parkinson at 50 poster
10.0

Sir Michael Parkinson looks back over his 50 years as a broadcaster, revealing some tricks of the interview trade and remembering some of his favourite encounters.

Parkinson at 50

2021

Getting It Right poster
6.8

Gavin is 31 years old and still lives with his parents. He is awfully shy but before he knows it there are three women interested in him. Lady Minerva Munday has a casual way of life and lives in a basement, Joan is an over-sexed millionairess, married to a Greek architect. But Gavin prefers the ugly assistant in the barbershop.

Getting It Right

1989

Distant Voices, Still Lives poster
6.9

Siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen's wedding. It is a joyous occasion, but through flashbacks, it becomes clear that the family was not always happy. Their father was physically abusive to his wife and left the children emotionally traumatized. As a result, the children have grown into unhappy adults, looking for love they didn't receive when they were young.

Distant Voices, Still Lives

1988

Last Christmas poster
4.5

A young boy's dream of finding his dead father comes true when his father visits him as an angel. But things turn sour when he discovers that his father was not the hero he imagined him to be.

Last Christmas

1999

Junket 89 poster
6.4

Science-fiction comedy: Junket, a schoolboy, borrows an apparatus invented by the absent-minded science master for transporting matter - and, by accident, makes it work...

Junket 89

1970

Arthur's Dyke poster
6.4

Twenty years ago, three men set out on the longest walk of their lives. They vowed to repeat the walk, but this time they are joined by a forty year old wife and mother who is in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

Arthur's Dyke

2001

Name for the Day poster
7.0

Clive decides he will go mad. Stark raving mad. His wife doesn't take him seriously, until Clive does something that makes her realise he means it.

Name for the Day

1980

Carrie's War poster
7.7

Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.

Carrie's War

2004

No artwork available
8.0

Supermarket checkout girl Dianne Clarke embarks upon a campaign as a modern day Robin Hood, with no inkling of the chaos she is about to create. Within just a few days the Friendly Saver where she works will be brought to its knees. Double-check your receipt!

Checkout Girl

2000

Life After Death poster
NR

"We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half." Meg struggles with the sudden death of her husband.

Life After Death

1982

The Thieving Headmistress poster
7.0

A Headmistress steals from her own school. As a young girl Colleen McCabe asks a priest in confessional "What is sin?" Thirty years later she is found out for practising it. An ex-nun,she leaves the convent because she becomes disillusioned with spiritual matters and goes into teaching, being appointed headmistress of the John Rigby School in London. Along with a small coterie of chosen staff members to act as her spies,she misappropriates half a million pounds from school funds which she spends on luxury goods and a trip on the Orient Express. Meanwhile the school suffers,having to use ancient text books and pupils as cleaners. She is tried,although admitted to hospital for depression on the trial day, and sentenced to five years in jail, later reduced to four. The film alternates dramatized scenes of Colleen's misbehaviour with interviews with those who knew her.

The Thieving Headmistress

2006

The Canterville Ghost poster
NR

'The Canterville Ghost' is one of the most popular choice for making a film in Oscar Wilde's works, and the original short story deserves the popularity. It is a witty spoof about a ghost and the 'haunted' mansion where a rich American family start to live. In this story, the family are not annoyed by the presence of the ghost; no, it is the ghost who is annoyed by the family who just refuse to be terrified. After all, why should we be scared by an old man wearing rusty coat of mail, whose best trick is to walk in the middle of night making big noises?

The Canterville Ghost

1997

Malachi's Cove poster
6.8

A tough young girl lives with her aging grandfather near a cove on the coast of Cornwall. She supports herself and him by gathering seaweed to sell as fertilizer. A cocky young neighboring boy decides to help her with the work.

Malachi's Cove

1973

No artwork available
NR

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

The Trouble with 2b: Part Six, Blackboard Jungle

1972

An Audience with Bob Monkhouse poster
7.3

The late, great comedian Bob Monkhouse entertains a celebrity audience that includes Stephen Fry, Mandy Smith and Eamonn Holmes in this 1994 special. Watch him answer questions, tell funny tales and crack jokes.

An Audience with Bob Monkhouse

1994

No artwork available
NR

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

The Trouble with 2b: Part Four, Parents' Day

1972

No artwork available
NR

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

The Trouble with 2b: Part Three, Trial of Strength

1972

No artwork available
NR

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

The Trouble with 2b: Part Five, Thirty Years Younger

1972

Baby Talk poster
7.0

It's such a simple, natural thing to have a baby, thinks Mary. But she and husband Paul are preoccupied with their careers. Can their young neighbour Tessa help, or are the emotions around a new baby more complex than anyone had expected?

Baby Talk

1981