Maxine Peake

Maxine Peake
Born	(1974-07-14) 14 July 1974[1] Westhoughton, Bolton, England, UK[2]
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present

Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless,^[3] barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk^[4] and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a small role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything.

Early life

Born in Westhoughton, Bolton, Greater Manchester, Peake is the second of two daughters born to Brian and Glenys Peake (née Hall).^[5] Her father was a lorry driver before working in the electrical industry, her mother a part-time careworker; Lisa, her elder sister by nine years, is a police officer.^[5] Her parents separated when Peake was nine and she lived with her mother until the age of 15. When her mother moved in with a new boyfriend several miles away, Peake went to live with her grandfather so she could continue her GCSE studies at Westhoughton High School, before going on to take her A-Levels at Canon Slade School, Bradshaw near Bolton. Her grandfather encouraged her to develop her creativity and start acting.

Peake joined the Octagon Youth Theatre, Bolton, at 13, before a period at the youth theatre of the Royal Exchange, Manchester. She later did a two-year performing arts course at Salford College of Technology.^[3] During this time she appeared in productions with two leading amateur theatre companies in Bolton: The Marco Players and The Phoenix Theatre Company. Peake was a member of the Communist Party of Britain Salford branch in her youth.^[6] In her teens Peake was a representative for Wigan Ladies rugby league team.^[7]

Peake's early attempts to enter the acting profession were unsuccessful. She was rejected by every theatre education company in North West England,^[8] and tried unsuccessfully for three years to get into Manchester Polytechnic Theatre School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.^[5] However, at 21, she obtained a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her attempts to find sponsorship for RADA were the subject of a 1996 documentary by The South Bank Show; eventually, after being put forward by RADA, she was awarded the Patricia Rothermere Scholarship.^[3][9]

Later life

In 2009 Peake returned to the north-west, after living in London for 13 years. The move freed her of the financial constraints of trying to buy a house in London. Living in Salford with her art director partner Pawlo Wintoniuk, she says, gave her the freedom to choose more risky roles and lower-paying jobs in theatre. "For the last few years I have been lucky enough to choose what I want to do. Living in Salford gives me the confidence to do that because I don’t have a massive mortgage."^[10] In 2014 the actress revealed that in an attempt to have children she had explored every option, including IVF treatments. She has suffered two miscarriages.^[11]

Career

Peake has appeared in a number of television and stage productions including Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies, Channel 4's Shameless, in the lead role of barrister Martha Costello in the BBC's legal drama Silk and alongside John Simm in the BBC drama The Village, depicting life in a Derbyshire village during the First World War.^[12] Following career advice from Victoria Wood, between the two series of Dinnerladies, Peake lost so much weight that an explanation had to be written into the script for her character, Twinkle.^[3]

Peake portrayed the Moors murderer Myra Hindley in See No Evil: The Moors Murders.^[13] Broadcast in May 2006, it was met with mixed reactions; soon after this Peake announced that she was leaving Shameless. January 2009 saw Peake appear in her first major feature film role, as Angela, in the film Clubbed.

Maxine Peake (right) at the 2016 Hay Festival

She has played the title role in Miss Julie at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.^[14] She previously played the part of Kristin in a 2000 production.^[15] as well as Doll Tearsheet in the BBC2 adaptations of Henry IV, Parts I and II.^[16]

In November 2012, a play that Peake had written, directed and starred in about the life of the Leeds-born cyclist Beryl Burton was broadcast on BBC Radio Four as Beryl: A Love Story On Two Wheels.^[17][18] In 2014 Peake adapted her play for the stage. Titled simply Beryl, it was commissioned by the West Yorkshire Playhouse where it ran in June and July 2014 to coincide with the start of the Tour de France in Leeds,^[19] returned in June and July 2015 and toured across England in Autumn 2015.^[20]

Peake provided the vocals for the Eccentronic Research Council's 2012 concept album 1612 Underture about the Pendle Witch Trials,^[21] and as a crazed stalker in the music video for "Sweet Saturn Mine"^[22] by Moonlandingz, a collaborative effort by Eccentronic Research Council and Fat White Family in 2015.^[23]

In September 2013, Peake was appointed an Associate Artist of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.^[24] Her association with the theatre began in childhood and she was a member of the youth theatre. Major productions in which she has performed include The Children's Hour in 2008, for which she won a MEN Award, and Miss Julie in 2012 for which she won a Manchester Theatre Award. All of her performances at the Royal Exchange have been directed by Sarah Frankcom with whom she also collaborated on The Masque of Anarchy in 2012 for the Manchester International Festival. Building on this work, in September 2014 Frankcom went on to direct her as the title character in a radical re-imagining of Hamlet.^[25] The demand for tickets was so great that the production was extended for a week, having been "the theatre’s fastest-selling show in a decade".^[26] The Guardian said of her performance: "Peake’s delicate ferocity, her particular mixture of concentration and lightness, ensure that you want to follow her whenever she appears".^[27] A year later she appeared in Frankcom's production of The Skriker, as "Caryl Churchill’s shape-shifting, doom-wreaking fairy".^[28] The Guardian's Lyn Gardner listed the production in her top ten British plays of the year.^[29]

Political views

Jeremy Corbyn and Maxine Peake walking together in the procession through the village at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival and Rally 2016

Peake is a feminist and socialist. She was active in communist organisations in her youth. She supported Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour leadership election and later.^[30] She brings her views into much of her work.^[31]

In January 2014, Peake won the first Bolton Socialist Club Outstanding Contribution to Socialism Award, for using her work to oppose the government's "crippling austerity measures".^[32]

In January 2016, Peake featured^[33] in the Climate Coalition's short film I Wish For You as Mia, with Jeremy Irons starring as her grandfather, to highlight the urgency on combating climate change.

Filmography

Theatre

Radio drama

• Guilty Until Proved Innocent (2009), Dina^[61]
• Geoffrey Chaucer - Troilus and Criseyde (2009), Criseyde (dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw)^[62]
• This Repulsive Woman (2010), Deborah Hurst^[63]
• Craven (Series 1: 2009, Series 2, 3 & 4: 2012, Series 5: 2013, Series 6: 2014), Detective Sue Craven^[64]
• Beryl: A Love Story On Two Wheels (2012), writer and performer (Beryl Burton)^[17]
• Queens of the Coal Age (2013) writer and performer (Anne Scargill)^[65]
• My Dad Keith (2014), writer and performer (Steph)^[66]
• Betsie Coleman (2015), performer (Betsie Coleman)^[67]
• Briar Road (2015), narrator (writer Jonathan Buckley)^[68]
• Not In Our Name CD (2015), narrator (writer Heathcote Williams)^[69]

References

External links

• Maxine Peake at the Internet Movie Database
• Main fan website: http://maxine-peake.net/