Lesley Sharp

Acting

Lesley Sharp

Born

1960-04-03 (66)

Place of birth

Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

87 titles

Lesley Sharp is an outstanding film and television actress who has been nominated for many prestigious awards, including BAFTA Best Supporting Actress (nominated) for 'The Full Monty', RTS Television Award for Best Actress (Winner) and Golden Nymph Award for Outstanding Actress (Winner) for her drama series for 'Afterlife'.

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 8 titles

Pillion poster
6.5

Colin, a timid man, meets Ray, a confident biker gang leader, who initiates him into a submissive relationship, challenging Colin’s mundane existence and prompting personal growth through their unconventional dynamic.

Pillion

2025

Catherine Called Birdy poster
6.1

A teenage girl in Medieval England navigates life and tries to avoid the arranged marriages her father maps out for her.

Catherine Called Birdy

2022

Help poster
7.1

Sarah seems to have found her calling working in a Liverpool care home where she has a special talent for connecting with the residents. Then, in March 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic hits.

Help

2021

National Theatre Live: Paradise poster
NR

When a young soldier appears, his hope of escape comes with suspicion. And as an old enemy also emerges, he is faced with an even greater temptation: revenge.

National Theatre Live: Paradise

2021

Toxic Town: The Corby Poisonings poster
7.7

This film tells the unknown story of the worst child poisoning case since Thalidomide, featuring a landmark legal battle, by a group of mothers determined to uncover the truth.

Toxic Town: The Corby Poisonings

2020

Prime Suspect: Murder In Suburbia poster
6.0

After his wife Diane vanished in 1983, suspicion centred on her respected GP husband Robert Jones, but he was never charged by the police. Now, new evidence reveals Diane Jones's secrets.

Prime Suspect: Murder In Suburbia

2024

Frank Bough: National Treasure, National Disgrace poster
NR

Frank Bough was one of the most famous men on British TV until a series of scandalous tabloid exposés ended his career We explore the motivation that led to his fall from grace, his attempt to rebuild a career and his his ultimate ignominious end.

Frank Bough: National Treasure, National Disgrace

2023

MH17: The Plane Crash That Shook The World poster
NR

When Flight MH17 was shot down in 2014, the reverberations affected world events. This documentary explores how the tragedy shaped what came after it.

MH17: The Plane Crash That Shook The World

2024

2010s · 10 titles

Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light poster
NR

A multi-part documentary about Alan Clarke, featuring interviews with various actors, writers and producers.

Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light

2016

Brighton poster
5.1

A typical day in Brighton; two working-class couples are on a day trip to the beach. But Brighton is changing and the friends can’t keep up. A result is a vengeful act of violence that exposes the gaps and similarities between class, gender, and sexual orientations.

Brighton

2019

National Theatre Live: A Taste of Honey poster
NR

When her mother Helen runs off with a car salesman, feisty teenager Jo takes up with Jimmie, a sailor who promises to marry her, before he heads for the seas. Art student Geof moves in and assumes the role of a surrogate parent until, misguidedly, he sends for Helen and their unconventional setup unravels.

National Theatre Live: A Taste of Honey

2014

Whistle and I'll Come to You poster
5.7

After placing his ailing wife Alice in a care home, elderly academic James Parkin goes to stay at a wintry out-of-season hotel which they used to visit together. But at night he seemingly becomes the victim of a ghostly revenge - but who is the avenger?

Whistle and I'll Come to You

2010

Shirley poster
6.5

Shirley is the youngest of eight children from a mixed race marriage. By the time she is a toddler the family have moved to the all white area of Splott and by the time she is 12 Shirley has discovered she has an extraordinary voice and can earn money singing in pubs around the docks after her father if jailed for sexual crimes. As a young teenager she begins singing and dancing in 'coloured review shows'. But it is a chance meeting with struggling agent Mike Sullivan that changes her life forever. He promises to make her a star, but has no idea of the personal sacrifice that will mean for the teenaged Shirley.

Shirley

2011

Spoon Fed poster
8.0

Ellie, a smart and successful woman, has her life changed when she is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As her condition worsens, she joins a support group where she meets Dan; an encounter that has unexpected results.

Spoon Fed

2018

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away poster
8.3

Alice checks into a lonely hotel room at night and sets about making preparations to end her life, whilst obsessively re-drafting the perfect suicide note.

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away

2017

Dusty and Me poster
NR

A feel-good, heart-warming film set in Yorkshire in 1977 about an adolescent boy's big summer after leaving school. It's about a boy and a dog, class and ambition, first love, and above all, family.

Dusty and Me

2018

No artwork available
NR

Follows three young couples as they travel to Korea to be blessed by their messiah, Reverend Moon, at one of the movement's controversial mass weddings

Married to the Moonies

2012

No artwork available
NR

Emily and Andy have been trying for a baby for years. After three stillborn babies their world has been torn apart by grief. Having moved house to make a fresh start, Emily slips into a delusional state as a way of coping with her loss. Andy tries to help guide her through whilst privately struggling in his own way with the loss of his much wanted children, as well as the gradual loss of his wife as he becomes isolated from her world. Andy then takes drastic action to help Emily see the truth. But is their relationship strong enough to survive?

Peekaboo

2015

2000s · 13 titles

From Hell poster
6.7

Frederick Abberline is an opium-huffing inspector from Scotland Yard who falls for one of Jack the Ripper's prostitute targets in this Hughes brothers adaption of a graphic novel that posits the Ripper's true identity.

From Hell

2001

Inkheart poster
6.3

The adventures of a father and his young daughter, in their search for a long lost book that will help reunite a missing, close relative.

Inkheart

2008

Vera Drake poster
7.2

Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.

Vera Drake

2004

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 poster
6.9

After 6 years of brutal murders, the West Yorkshire Police fear that they may have already interviewed The Ripper and let him back into the world to continue his reign of terror upon the citizens of Yorkshire. Assistant Chief Constable of the Manchester Police, Peter Hunter, is called in to oversee the West Yorkshire Police's Ripper investigation and see what they could have missed.

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980

2009

Cheeky poster
6.6

Consumed with sadness after the death of his wife and subsequent rejection from his son, a widower, at the urging of his friends, opts to appear on a vulgar, wildly popular game show (for which his wife signed him up) and watches his life start to change for the better.

Cheeky

2003

Born With Two Mothers poster
9.0

A provocative drama about an IVF mix-up which results in a white woman giving birth to a black boy.

Born With Two Mothers

2005

Planespotting poster
5.7

Television drama based on a true story about a group of planespotters wrongly accused of being spies. 14 planespotters are arrested for behaving 'suspiciously' at an air base in Greece and are accused of being spies because of the telescopes, radio scanners and aircraft serial numbers they have in their possession. They plead their innocence but the farce turns into a nightmare when the group are held in squalid Greek prisons.

Planespotting

2005

No artwork available
4.6

Based on the best-selling book by award-winning writer Simon Garfield, four stories from Britain's 'lost decade' (1945 - 1955) are presented from the diaries of four very distinct people. In his book, Garfield selected some of the most expressive diarists, and focused on the post-war years giving a vivid portrait of how Britain coped in the post-war years and how little, or how much, attitudes have changed over the past 60 years. The stories touch on homosexuality, single women making their way in life post-war and a housewife handling the less than welcome return of her husband.

Our Hidden Lives

2005

Carla poster
4.3

The meeting of the quiet Helen North and the charismatic Carla on a beautiful Greek island leads to tragic consequences.

Carla

2003

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

Paul Gascoigne "Gazza" in China poster
NR

Football icon Paul Gascoigne is at the end of his playing career, heading to the Gansu the poorest province in China's remote north-west to play for the local team Gansu Tianma football club. Paul wants to show he can still offer a lot to football and battle his inner demons and addictions along with feeling isolated in his new home in China.

Paul Gascoigne "Gazza" in China

2003

In Passing poster
7.0

A Blitz mother confronts a home truth.

In Passing

2009

The Second Coming poster
9.0

Steven Baxter is the Son of God, and can produce the miracles to prove it. How does the world react when he announces it has to produce a Third Testament within five days, or else it's Judgment Day?

The Second Coming

2003

1990s · 11 titles

The Full Monty poster
7.0

Sheffield, England. Gaz, a jobless steelworker in need of quick cash persuades his mates to bare it all in a one-night-only strip show.

The Full Monty

1997

Naked poster
7.3

An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.

Naked

1993

Close My Eyes poster
5.8

After some years of tension, Richard begins a sexual relationship with his sister Natalie. Now married, the relationship proves dangerously obsessional.

Close My Eyes

1991

Priest poster
6.3

The deeply held religious convictions of an idealistic young priest are challenged when he must face extraordinary events within his own congregation.

Priest

1995

Great Expectations poster
6.5

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Great Expectations

1999

Top Girls poster
7.5

Marlene celebrates her new position as MD of Top Girls Appointment Agency by giving a dinner party for five oddly assorted women from centuries past.

Top Girls

1991

The Moonstone poster
7.6

A cursed Hindu diamond, stolen by a British officer in 1799 and bequeathed to his niece, vanishes.

The Moonstone

1996

Speaking In Tongues poster
NR

Tony Marchant's eloquent and painful play about the changes to how people are employed, and what that does to their sense of self.

Speaking In Tongues

1994

Syrup poster
7.4

An Oscar nominated short film about a man's life changing when he gets a hairpiece.

Syrup

1994

Wedded poster
7.0

A husband drives throughout the night on a voyage of self-discovery, while his wife waits at home, raking over the ashes of their marriage as their child sleeps in the next room.

Wedded

1990

No artwork available
10.0

Clarence Flamer hosts a late-night talk show on regional radio station North Star Sound. A phone call he takes one night leads to his discovering a mortgage scam being run by a group of estate agents. His attempts to delve deeper have tragic consequences.

Night Voice

1990

1980s · 4 titles

The Rachel Papers poster
5.1

Poised to attend Oxford University, 19-year-old Charles Highway decides it's high time to have a romantic encounter with an older woman. With the help of a computer program and several eccentric relatives, Highway sets his sights on seducing Rachel Noyce, a stunning American in her 20s. However, Highway has his work cut out for him. Noyce has a boyfriend, DeForest, and is not exactly receptive to Highway's advances — at first, anyway.

The Rachel Papers

1989

Rita, Sue and Bob Too poster
6.2

On a run-down Bradford council estate, teenagers Rita and Sue both share a job babysitting for Bob and Michelle's children. On the way home one night, Bob takes Rita and Sue up to a deserted, countryside landscape. Knowing what he has in mind, the girls are only too happy to oblige and both have a sexual encounter with him that becomes a regular occurrence.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too

1987

The Love Child poster
7.5

When he was a little boy, Dillon's rock musician father and hippie mother died in a traffic accident. Now in his twenties, Dillon wants nothing more than a normal, responsible life, working in an office and taking care of the grandmother who raised him. But his grandmother has other ideas, and Dillon finds himself lured into an alternate lifestyle of art, pleasure and rebellion.

The Love Child

1988

Road poster
7.2

A view of the inhabitants of a derelict road in Manchester, unsatisfied with their lives and routines. A young man locks himself away from the world. An older woman flirts with a soldier on leave. Two men invite two girls into an empty house.

Road

1987

Series credits

Doctor Who poster
7.6

The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.

Doctor Who

2005

Agatha Christie's Poirot poster
8.2

From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.

Agatha Christie's Poirot

1989

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

Aqua Teen Hunger Force poster
7.5

The surreal adventures of three anthropomorphic fast food items: Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad, and their human nextdoor neighbor, Carl Brutananadilewski.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

2000

Performance poster
6.3

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

Performance

1991

Who Do You Think You Are? poster
7.0

A British genealogy documentary series in which celebrities trace their ancestry, discovering secrets and surprises from their past.

Who Do You Think You Are?

2004

Fate: The Winx Saga poster
7.9

The coming-of-age journey of five fairies attending Alfea, a magical boarding school in the Otherworld where they must learn to master their powers while navigating love, rivalries, and the monsters that threaten their very existence.

Fate: The Winx Saga

2021

Red Eye poster
7.1

London police officer DC Hana Li is escorting Dr Matthew Nolan back to Beijing where he has been accused of a crime. However, on board flight 357, she finds herself embroiled in an escalating conspiracy and a growing number of murders.

Red Eye

2024

Prime Suspect poster
7.8

Highly skilled Detective Inspector Jane Tennison battles to prove herself in a male dominated world.

Prime Suspect

1991

Moving On poster
7.3

Moving 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

ScreenPlay poster
6.0

Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.

ScreenPlay

1986

ScreenPlay poster
6.0

Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.

ScreenPlay

1986

ScreenPlay poster
6.0

Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.

ScreenPlay

1986

Scott & Bailey poster
7.4

D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police.

Scott & Bailey

2011

Angela and Friends poster
5.0

Daily chat show, hosted by Angela Griffin, that combines topical debate with five lifestyle clubs: Diet and Health, Beauty, Books and Travel, Entertainment and Fashion. 

Angela and Friends

2009

Cranford poster
8.1

A rich and comic drama about the people of Cranford, a small Cheshire town on the cusp of change in the 1840s. Adapted from the novels by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Cranford

2007

A Ghost Story for Christmas poster
7.4

A strand of annual British short television adaptations of classic ghost stories, referencing the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas. First broadcast on BBC One from 1971 to 1978, and revived in 2005 on BBC Four.

A Ghost Story for Christmas

1971

Bergerac poster
5.8

Ex-cop Jim Bergerac is forced to confront a troubling past case when a wealthy woman is murdered, pushing him to overcome personal demons and reignite his investigative prowess to navigate family tensions and law enforcement scrutiny.

Bergerac

2025

The Full Monty poster
7.2

The Full Monty gang is back after 25 years, swapping their stage costumes for dognapping, racing pigeons, and one very unconventional hostage situation. Gaz might be older, but he's no wiser. And his best friend, Dave, refuses to get sucked into any more of his antics. But when tragedy strikes, the whole Monty gang must pull together for a common purpose: to honor an old friend.

The Full Monty

2023

Clocking Off poster
7.6

Clocking Off is a British television drama series broadcast on BBC One for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced by Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott. Effectively an anthology programme that followed the lives of a group of workers at a Manchester textile factory, with each episode focusing on the private life of a different character. How much do you know about the person working next to you? From the outside, life at Mackintosh Textiles appears to run smoothly, but in a community with so many secrets to hide, things are far from straightforward. In six powerful, self-contained dramas, everyday life is fractured by tumultuous marriages, snatched passions, disappearing spouses, and gang harassment.

Clocking Off

2000

Playing the Field poster
5.3

The 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

This Morning poster
5.2

This Morning features a variety of news, as well as show business, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, home and garden, food, tech, live phone-ins, and competitions.

This Morning

1988

Living the Dream poster
7.6

A British family, the Pembertons, decide it’s time to leave rainy England and move to the sunshine state of Florida. They've bought an RV Park with plans for a booming family-run business, but it soon turns out that they are not going to be living the dream they hoped.

Living the Dream

2017

Paranoid poster
6.3

The murder of a female GP in a rural playground in front of numerous witnesses draws a group of detectives into an ever-darkening mystery that takes them across Europe, aided by mysterious notes sent by the "Ghost Detective".

Paranoid

2016

Daylight Robbery poster
8.7

Daylight Robbery is a British television drama mini-series that aired on ITV from 9 September 1999 to 18 December 2000. Focusing on four Essex women struggling with personal and domestic problems, decide to turn to crime to make ends meet.

Daylight Robbery

1999

Three Girls poster
7.3

The story of three of the children who were victims in the 2012 grooming and sex trafficking case in Rochdale, for which nine men were convicted and sentenced. The drama explores how these girls were groomed, how they were ignored by the authorities directly responsible for protecting them, and how they eventually made themselves heard.

Three Girls

2017

Capital poster
7.1

Set on a single street in South London, Capital is a portrait of a road transformed by soaring property prices: what was once the home of modest lower-middle class families, Pepys Road has been continuously gentrified into a street of multimillion pound houses. On one day, the people of this South London street all receive an anonymous postcard with the simple message 'we want what you have'. Its unsettling ripples affect every corner of the community.

Capital

2015

Afterlife poster
7.2

University lecturer Robert Bridge becomes involved in a series of supernatural events surrounding medium Alison Mundy.

Afterlife

2005

Art That Made Us poster
5.5

An alternative history of the British Isles, told through art. Looking at 1,500 years and eight dramatic turning points, acclaimed artists and thinkers encounter key historic art works from across the UK that have shaped the history of the British Isles and inspired their own work.

Art That Made Us

2022

Frank Stubbs Promotes poster
7.5

Frank Stubbs (Timothy Spall) is a down-at-heel ticket tout with grand ideas. He has an ambition to become a 'high class' promoter of famous and talented performers. In reality, his ambitions tend to outstrip his capabilities.

Frank Stubbs Promotes

1993

Bob & Rose poster
6.0

Gay thirtysomething schoolteacher Robert 'Bob' Gossage finds himself attracted to a woman, Rose Cooper, exploring their unconventional relationship and the challenges it presents to their identities and those around them, including Rose's heartbroken ex-boyfriend Andy, Bob's jealous best friend Holly, and Rose's gay rights activist mother Carol.

Bob & Rose

2001

Great Expectations poster
5.0

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Great Expectations

1999

The Diary of Anne Frank poster
7.3

Five-part adaptation of Anne Frank's famous wartime diaries in which a young teenager and her family go into hiding from the Nazis in wartime Amsterdam.

The Diary of Anne Frank

2009

Common As Muck poster
7.0

Common As Muck is a gritty BBC comedy drama serial focusing on the lives of a crew of bin men and their management staff. It ran for two series. The first series was screened in 1994 and the second in 1997. Both were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama.

Common As Muck

1994

The Shadow Line poster
7.6

A murder is investigated by both sides of the line, cops and criminals, using opposing methods. But the real line is the morality within each person and how far they will go before they cross it.

The Shadow Line

2011

Monkey Trousers poster
7.5

Monkey Trousers was a short-lived comedy series on ITV in 2005, featuring Alistair McGowan, John Thomson, Ronni Ancona, Mackenzie Crook, Griff Rhys Jones, Neil Morrissey, Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Marc Wootton and Steve Coogan. It was directed by David Kerr and produced by Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves' production company, Pett Productions. It succeeded The All Star Comedy Show, which was written by Reeves and Mortimer, and produced by Coogan. Sketches of the show included the moronic, yet fearless 'Croc Botherer', Roy the eerie, lonely toy-shopkeeper, Alistair the hopeless estate agent, who replies to every question with "I don't know", the swearing chef, and the 'Geordie Astronauts'. A DVD of the series was released on 4 July 2005.

Monkey Trousers

2005

Before We Die poster
5.0

Detective Hannah Laing becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial role as an undercover informant in a brutal murder investigation.

Before We Die

2021

Doctor Who Greatest Moments poster
7.1

Takes viewers on a journey through time and space to relive all the action from the sci-fi show, featuring exclusive interviews with key actors offering unique insights on the classic moments.

Doctor Who Greatest Moments

2009

Starlings poster
7.0

Starlings is a British comedy-drama written by Steve Edge and Matt King who also play the roles of Fergie and Uncle Loz. It is one of the few new television comedy series that has been commissioned and aired on Sky1.

Starlings

2012

The Second Coming poster
7.0

Video store clerk Steve Baxter realises that he is in fact the Son of God. He has just a few days to find the human race's Third Testament and thus avert the Apocalypse.

The Second Coming

2003