Sue Nicholls

Sue Nicholls, born Susan Frances Harmar Nicholls on 23 November 1943 in Darlaston, Staffordshire, is an English actress whose career has spanned television, stage, and music. Her father was Sir Harmar Nicholls, later Lord Harmar-Nicholls, who served as the Conservative MP for Peterborough from 1950 to 1974 and as MEP for Greater Manchester South from 1979 to 1984, before becoming a life peer. As a result of her father's peerage, Nicholls is entitled to be addressed as "The Honourable Susan Nicholls." She has one sister, Judith. Nicholls received her education at the School of St Mary and St Anne, later known as Abbots Bromley School for Girls, and subsequently trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Her professional career began in earnest when she was cast as Marilyn Gates in the British soap opera Crossroads, a role she held from 1964 to 1968. During that period, a song she performed on the programme, "Where Will You Be?", entered the UK singles chart on 3 July 1968 and climbed to number 17. Her follow-up single did not replicate that success, and Nicholls shifted her focus to cabaret, touring the country with a solo act before returning to stage work in plays and pantomimes.

The 1970s brought two contrasting international engagements. In Vienna, she performed between strip acts at a nightclub, and in 1974 she toured the United States and Canada with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a revival of London Assurance, concluding the tour with a six-week run on Broadway. That Broadway appearance remains her sole credited stage engagement in New York.

On British television, Nicholls took on the recurring role of secretary Joan Greengross in the sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, appearing from 1976 to 1979, and reprised the character in the 1996 sequel The Legacy of Reginald Perrin. She also portrayed Nadia Popov in Rentaghost from 1981 to 1984, played Mrs Muddle in Pipkins in 1973, and appeared as Derinda Forbes in the police drama The Professionals in the 1980 episode "The Acorn Syndrome."

Nicholls first appeared as Audrey Roberts in Coronation Street in April 1979, returning intermittently over the following years before joining the cast as a permanent character in 1985. The role has defined much of her public profile, earning her the British Soap Award for Best Comedy Performance in 2000 and the British Soap Award for Best Dramatic Performance in 2003, as well as an Outstanding Achievement Award from the same organisation in 2019.

In 2011, a senior nurse at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, Sister Anna Bianconi-Moore, observed a mole on Nicholls's shoulder while watching an episode of Coronation Street and contacted the production to raise her concerns. Nicholls was subsequently examined by the show's in-house doctor, Zeena Islam, who referred her to a skin cancer specialist. She was diagnosed with melanoma, and the mole was surgically removed. ITV later informed Bianconi-Moore of the outcome and invited her to visit the Coronation Street set to meet Nicholls.

Nicholls was married to actor Mark Eden from 1993 until his death in 2021. Eden was known to Coronation Street audiences for his portrayal of Alan Bradley, a role he held from 1986 to 1989.