Polly James

Polly James, born Pauline Devaney on 8 July 1941 in Blackburn, Lancashire, is an English former actress whose work spanned theatre, film, television, and radio. Her father managed a cotton mill in Nelson while the family lived in Oswaldtwistle. James attended St Peter's School in Mill Hill before moving on to the Convent of Notre Dame Grammar School for Girls in Blackburn. She subsequently earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she trained before launching her professional career.

Following her graduation from RADA, James made her Broadway debut in 1965 in Half a Sixpence. She also appeared in West End productions including I and Albert and Anne of Green Gables. In 1971, she worked alongside Judi Dench as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Merchant of Venice.

James established her television career through BBC2's Thirty-Minute Theatre and went on to appear in Z-Cars in 1967, playing a drug addict, and in Coronation Street that same year as Audrey Hargreaves. She became widely recognized for portraying Beryl Hennessey in the first four series of the British sitcom The Liver Birds, which ran from 1969 to 1974, a role she performed largely alongside Nerys Hughes. In 1976, she appeared in two notable projects: the biographical musical Once More with Music, in which she played actress Cicely Courtneidge, and the BBC television adaptation of Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, where she took the role of Jenny Wren. She appeared as a soubrette in Alan Clarke's 1982 production of Baal and portrayed Jane Hampden in the Doctor Who episode "The Awakening" in 1984.