
Acting
Lorraine Ashbourne
Born
1961-01-07 (65)
Place of birth
Manchester, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
75 titles
Lorraine Ashbourne (born 1961 in Manchester) is an English stage, film and television actress. She attended Wilbraham High School, when living in Fallowfield. She joined Stretford Children's Theatre. She took part in the University of Manchester Stage Society and Manchester Youth Theatre. She joined the Webber Drama School on 19 April 1982. Ashbourne has appeared on British series and television films, including: Playing the Field (1998), Unforgotten (2017), Grantchester (2017), Maigret in Montmartre (2017), Midsomer Murders (2018), The Street, and Jericho. As a stage actor, Lorraine regularly appeared at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, portraying roles such as Kate Hardcastle i…
Known for
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
8.0Wealth, lust, and betrayal set in the backdrop of Regency era England, seen through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.
Bridgerton
2020
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
8.2The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The Crown
2016
7.6A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996
7.4A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
2011
Film credits
2020s · 8 titles
6.5A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and traitorous lord of Rohan seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
2024
6.9A former boy band star unexpectedly gets a second shot at success when he forms a bond with a gifted young drummer.
I Used to Be Famous
2022
6.7A porcine bounty hunter accepts his next hit: Pickles, a naive, ebullient elephant. Though he initially sets out to capture the perky pachyderm, the unlikely pair find themselves crisscrossing the globe on an adventure that brings out the best in both of them.
Hitpig!
2024
5.4When news of the closure of a small hospital's geriatric ward begins to reach the community, the hospital invites a local news crew to document their planning of a concert in honor of the hospital's most celebrated nurse. But there might be something more threatening to the hospital itself, more deadly than the politicians ready to shut down the place at a moment's notice.
Allelujah
2023
7.5The radical new take on Dickens’ classic seeks both to exhume the original story’s gritty commentary on social inequality and the corrupting influence of greed, and to breathe new life into the lyricism of the original text by setting its scenes to extraordinary tableaux of modern dance.
A Christmas Carol
2020
NRI Hate Suzie Too, the three-part anti-Christmas special, written by Lucy Prebble (Secret Diary of a Call Girl, The Effect, Succession) and Billie Piper (Doctor Who, Yerma, Rare Beasts), follows former child star Suzie Pickles, also played by Piper, as she attempts to rebuild her public image after losing her marriage, her agent and primary custody of her son in the wake of the photo-hacking scandal. Desperate for redemption, Suzie signs on to the chaotic reality dance competition Dance Crazee Xmas, where every performance becomes another battle for public approval.
I Hate Suzie Too
2022
10.0It's Sylvia and Marek's wedding and you are all invited. Over the course of a hot summer's day, a family gathers to welcome a newcomer into their midst. But as the vodka flows and dances are shared, passions boil over and the limits of love are tested. What happens when the happiest day of your life opens the door to a new, frightening and uncertain future?
National Theatre Live: Till The Stars Come Down
2024
NRNo Masks from Theatre Royal Stratford East and Moonshine Features present a new work based on the real-life experiences and testimonies of key workers from East London.
No Masks
2020
2010s · 12 titles
6.3Set in Stalin-era Soviet Union, a disgraced MGB agent is dispatched to investigate a series of child murders -- a case that begins to connect with the very top of party leadership.
Child 44
2015
7.9James Bowen, a homeless busker and recovering drug addict, has his life transformed when he meets a stray ginger cat.
A Street Cat Named Bob
2016
6.9In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Blinded by the Light
2019
7.4Based on the true story of Robin, a handsome, brilliant and adventurous man whose life takes a dramatic turn when polio leaves him paralyzed.
Breathe
2017
7.2A hyperactive boy and his best friend, a slow-witted youth with an affinity for horses, start collecting scrap metal for a shady dealer.
The Selfish Giant
2013
6.9The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Oranges and Sunshine
2010
6.2Anna is stuck: she’s approaching 30 and has just moved back to her rural home-town, and into a shed in her mother’s backyard. She spends her time working a menial job at a local boating center and hides in the depths of her imagination, making movies with her thumbs. Irritated by her childish behavior, Anna's mother insists that she move out of her shed and on with her life. When a troubled young boy starts hanging around, the two form an unlikely bond. Through their strange yet mutually beneficial friendship, Anna slowly begins to confront her perpetual state of arrested development.
Adult Life Skills
2016
6.3A new republican prime minister strips the British monarch and her family of their money and assets, and forces them to live on a rundown council estate.
The Queen and I
2018
6.2Two women have been murdered within hours of one another near St. Pancras station, but in quite different ways. When a connection is made with two other murders which occurred months before, but also on the same day, DI Thorne realizes two serial killers may be at work in a macabre partnership
Thorne: Scaredycat
2010
6.6Anna lives a hermit's life in her Mum's garden shed, making videos starring her thumbs. She wants to stay there but her Mum has other plans.
Emotional Fusebox
2014
NRNews of a new girlfriend disrupts mother-and-son crime duo, Bunny and Clive.
Bunny and Clive
2016
NRWhen Ruth's son Jamie discovers his father has left the family farm to his brother Sam, he is enraged. Jamie has worked on the farm for twenty years, and to him this is the very worst kind of betrayal. In the middle of the night, a shotgun in hand, Jamie drags his daughter across to his parents' house to confront them. It falls to Ruth to talk herself and her family out of a life-threatening hostage situation in which one false move could cost her everything.
The Bind
2019
2000s · 7 titles
6.9In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.
King Kong
2005
6.0Downtrodden wife and mother Nella's life takes an unexpected turn for the better after she joins the Women's Voluntary Service office in Barrow-in-Furness during the Second World War. However, her new-found happiness is shattered when her son Cliff leaves to join the troops - provoking a painful confrontation with her husband Will.
Housewife, 49
2006
5.8Jefferson Steel, a washed-up Hollywood action star, is desperate to revive his flagging career. When his sleazy agent signs him up for what he believes is a high-profile Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear at Stratford upon Avon, Steel thinks he has finally landed the plum role he has been waiting for. However, he soon discovers that he has been tricked into joining an amateur dramatics group for a charity production.
A Bunch of Amateurs
2008
5.3Out of work, scrounger Robert Martin lives with his dysfunctional family - long suffering wife accident prone son and pregnant teenage daughter in a shabby house next door to a giant shopping center in the London suburbs. The Martins are the family from hell! Robert dreams if winning a dream holiday for his family, and when he fails to win yet another competition he flips, out tracks down the elderly winners, ties them up in the cellar and steals their tickets!
The Martins
2001
4.0This is the time of year when friends and family gather round the television to exchange the traditional greeting -“Don’t bother, there’s nothing on”. Well this Christmas join Victoria Wood for her ‘Mid Life Christmas’ featuring highlights from the Mid Life Olympics 2009, with the most unlikely sporting events and a dance number that brings together the killer combo of midriff bulge. Victoria then dons a bonnet and corset, for the popular costume drama Lark Pies to Cranchesterford, and revel in the further adventures of soap star Bo Beaumont played by long term collaborator Julie Walters. DVD extras include the searing in-depth documentary (!) ‘What larks!’
Victoria Wood's Midlife Christmas
2009
6.5Loan shark Eddie Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
A Christmas Carol
2000
Victoria Wood delves into the making of her Mid-Life Christmas, with behind the scenes footage from sketches including Lark Pies to Cranchesterford and the Midlife Olympics. The making of Victoria Wood's Mid-Life Christmas.
Victoria Wood: What Larks! Or... What I Did on My Holidays
2009
1990s · 4 titles
6.4A romantic comedy about a man, a woman and a football team. Based on Nick Hornby's best selling autobiographical novel, Fever Pitch. English teacher Paul Ashworth believes his long standing obsession with Arsenal serves him well. But then he meets Sarah. Their relationship develops in tandem with Arsenal's roller coaster fortunes in the football league, both leading to a nail biting climax.
Fever Pitch
1997
6.8Jack always lands on his feet. He lands on his feet when he marries the beautiful Sarah. He lands on his feet when he buys a luxurious new home. However, when Sarah goes into labour, he takes a tumble down the stairs and lands on his head. When he comes around he discovers he is the proud father of a baby girl, but deficient in the spouse department to the tune of 1.
Jack & Sarah
1995
Jack Taylor is the homicide detective investigating the murders of five children. Aware that the serial killer is likely to strike for the sixth time, he discovers a connection to an ancient Druidic site, and learns that the consequences of failing to stop the next killing would be far more horrifying and personal than he could ever have imagined.
Number Six
1995
5.5When a four year old and other children in same neighborhood develop leukaemia, the parents suspect a nearby factory. Based on real events.
Fighting for Gemma
1993
1980s · 3 titles
6.9Siblings 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
4.6In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
The Dressmaker
1988
6.4A Falklands War soldier missing, believed dead, turns up claiming amnesia.
Resurrected
1989
Series credits
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
8.0Wealth, lust, and betrayal set in the backdrop of Regency era England, seen through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.
Bridgerton
2020
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
8.2The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The Crown
2016
7.6A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996
7.4A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
2011
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
6.8The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
The Bill
1984
7.3New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
New Tricks
2004
8.1An anthology of darkly comic twisted tales, each one taking place behind a door marked 'number 9'.
Inside No. 9
2014
7.6London police detectives Cassie Stuart and Sunny Khan investigate historic cold cases involving missing persons, murder and long-hidden secrets.
Unforgotten
2015
7.0Adapted from the hit US series, Law & Order: UK follows a team of police detectives and prosecutors representing the public interest in the criminal justice system.
Law & Order: UK
2009
8.3Pie in the Sky is a British offbeat police comedy drama programme starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed, created by Andrew Payne and first broadcast in five series on BBC1 between 13 March 1994 and 17 August 1997 as well as being syndicated on other channels in other countries, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series departs slightly from other police dramas in that the protagonist, Henry Crabbe, while still being an on-duty policeman, is also the head chef of the title restaurant set in the fictional town of Middleton and county of Westershire.
Pie in the Sky
1994
8.0Rafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode.
Rafferty's Rules
1987
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
8.4Set in the small hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town, Candleford, the series chronicles the daily lives of farm-workers, craftsmen and gentry at the end of the 19th Century. Lark Rise to Candleford is a love letter to a vanished corner of rural England and a heart-warming drama series teeming with wit, wisdom and romance.
Lark Rise to Candleford
2008
6.9Old grudges, new rivalries. A tangled web of murder and revenge spirals in a fractured Nottinghamshire mining community. Powerful drama with Lesley Manville and David Morrissey.
Sherwood
2022
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
7.6Charlotte Bronte's classic about an orphan girl who grows up to become a governess in a gloomy manor in Yorkshire, where she falls in love with the mysterious Edward Rochester.
Jane Eyre
2006
6.8Little Crackers is a series of Christmas short films featuring stars of British and Irish comedy.
Little Crackers
2010
7.0A chance romance between two men from very different worlds, one from the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, the other from a world of clubbing and youthful excess, leads into mystery after one of them suddenly disappears.
London Spy
2015
5.7Coming Up is a British Channel 4 television series of films made for television by new directors and writers. The first series was in 2006, and each year's series comprises seven or eight films. Series 6 was shown from July to September 2011. A reviewer in The Independent wrote: "Thank goodness for Coming Up ... it's a genuinely interesting display of possibilities".
Coming Up
2003
7.0Joanna finds an unidentified man dead in a lift in a underground car park after a devastating flood, police assumes that he became trapped as the waters rose, but she is obsessed with discovering what happened to him.
After the Flood
2024
6.4DI Tom Thorne finds himself dragged back into the nightmares of his past as he races against time to find a serial killer who carries out unusual attacks on young women.
Thorne
2010
6.3In the Yorkshire Dales in the 1870s, the shantytown of Jericho is the home of a community that will live, thrive and die in the shadow of the viaduct they've been brought together to build.
Jericho
2016
NRThe everyday public and private lives of the detectives, policemen and policewomen who work at the inner-city Christmas Street police station in Manchester.
City Central
1998
5.3The on-the-field trials and tribulations and the off-the-field lives, loves and infidelities of 'The Castlefield Blues', an under funded, badly managed ladies football team from South Yorkshire in the north of England whose loyalty to the team, the game and each other far exceeds their chances of ever winning the championship.
Playing the Field
1998
7.2Big dreams, no qualifications and always herself. Mum’s been sectioned, Gran’s too busy, but after a messy break-up, wild child Alma aims to break free in Bolton.
Alma's Not Normal
2020
5.8A gripping eight-part series about a state-of-the-art law enforcement team whose unswerving mission is to hunt down some of Britain’s most dangerous criminals. The Interceptor delves into the adventures of a dedicated surveillance team known as the UNIT. Keeping their quarries under ultra-tight surveillance, they take us into the real world inhabited by the criminals of today. And it’s easy to recognize because it’s the same world the rest of us inhabit.
The Interceptor
2015
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
6.6Suzie Pickles, a star on the wane, has her whole life upended when her phone is hacked and a photo of her emerges in an extremely compromising position.
I Hate Suzie
2020
6.3University lecturer Dr Leah Dale has always prided herself on her academic integrity so when final year student Rose, submits a suspiciously top-grade essay, Leah is quick to call her out. But there’s more going on than meets the eye as Rose takes the challenge as a personal affront, and what begins as a seemingly open and shut case of academic deception soon spirals out of control.
Cheat
2019
7.0True Dare Kiss is a British television drama produced for BBC One. It is written by Debbie Horsfield and produced by Marcus Wilson and features Dervla Kirwan, David Bradley and Lorraine Ashbourne. It concerns the reunion of four sisters and a brother following the death of their estranged father, uncovering the truth, hiding secrets, and a cataclysmic event in the past. The series, set in the city of Manchester in the North-West of England, was aired in six parts from 28 June 2007. Filming for the series began on 8 January 2007.
True Dare Kiss
2007
5.6Prophet John Wroe preaches of the coming Apocalypse and appeals for seven virgins to 'serve' him in his home. This series is their story. Based on the novel by Jane Rogers.
Mr. Wroe's Virgins
1993
7.6Five women along with two riotous backing singers come together to create a makeshift punk-rock band in order to enter a local talent contest, but in writing their first original song, soon discover that they have a lot to say - and this is their way to say it.
Riot Women
2025
5.8Murderland is a 2009 British television drama miniseries created by David Pirie and directed by Catherine Morshead. The three-part serial concerns the points of view of a mystery surrounding a traumatic murder, as seen from the perspective of the three primary characters: Carrie, the daughter of the murdered woman; Douglas Hain, the detective in charge of the investigation; and Sally, the murder victim, all have their story to tell. Haunted by her mother's murder when she was a child, Carrie seeks to uncover the truth so that she can move on with her life. As the investigation unfolds, Carrie's yearning to discover who murdered her mother grows more intense, bringing her closer to the detective working the case.
Murderland
2009
Divorced single mother Julia Merrygrove works as a local councillor whilst also holding down a job in a biscuit factory. She begins an affair with George Rudge, her opposite number on the council.
Rich Tea and Sympathy
1991
Thin Ice was a British comedy television show on BBC Two starring Marc Wootton and Nina Wadia. All the episodes were written by Simon Carlyle and Gregor Sharp. It began on 28 February 2006 and ran for six 30 minute episodes until 4 April 2006. It was based around an ice rink in Derby, revolving around the intense rivalry which exists between an amateur ice-skating trainer and her nemesis. The programme was filmed, however, at Whitley Bay Ice Rink, and around the town of Whitley Bay in North Tyneside, which are mentioned as to where the British Championships would be held in the series. The programme ran for one series, but was not renewed by the BBC.
Thin Ice
2006
6.6Public Enemies explores the relationship between 28-year-old Eddie, recently released on life licence from prison after serving 10 years, and his probation officer, Paula, returning from suspension following a shocking crime committed by an offender under her supervision.
Public Enemies
2012
First transmitted in 2004 to commemorate the channel's 40th birthday, stars and programme makers come together to look back at the story of BBC Two.
Happy Birthday BBC Two
2014

