# Paula Wilcox

Paula Wilcox (born 13 December 1949) is an English actress. She played Chrissy Plummer in the ITV sitcom Man About The House from 1973 to 1976, and also had roles in TV shows such as The Lovers, Miss Jones and Son, The Queen’s Nose, The Smoking Room, Emmerdale, Mount Pleasant, Boomers, Upstart Crow and Girlfriends. From 2020 to 2023, Wilcox appeared as Elaine Jones in Coronation Street.

## Early life

Wilcox was born in Manchester on 13 December 1949 to Joseph and Mary Wilcox.

## Career

Wilcox joined the National Youth Theatre aged seventeen. She was offered her first starring television role in The Lovers , a Granada sitcom produced for the ITV network, largely written by Jack Rosenthal and co-starring Richard Beckinsale. There were two series of The Lovers, plus a feature film. She appeared in an episode of The Benny Hill Show (Thames) broadcast on 23 February 1972.
Wilcox was cast in one of the lead roles of Man About the House (Thames, 1973–1976) as Chrissy Plummer, who was regularly in a flirtatious battle of wits with her male flatmate Robin, played by Richard O'Sullivan. The series ran for six series and the main cast also featured in the spin-off feature film. Her follow-up role was as the eponymous single mother in Miss Jones and Son (1977–1978). In 1991, Wilcox returned to situation comedy as Ros West in a Yorkshire Television sitcom called Fiddlers Three opposite Peter Davison before playing the character of Ivy Sandford in the pilot of Frank Skinner's Blue Heaven on Channel 4 in 1992; the show then went on to become a series. She appeared in several series of The Queen's Nose (1995–2001), and also played small roles in the films The Higher Mortals (1993) and the Woody Allen movie Scoop (2006).
She was cast as Lilian in the BBC Three sitcom The Smoking Room which ran from 2004–2005.
On 27 October 2006, Wilcox appeared in the Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass as Marlene's sister. She has also played another character in the Only Fools and Horses universe, appearing in 2 episodes of Rock and Chips, playing Edward "Grandad" Trotter's estranged wife Violet. In 2007, Wilcox joined the cast of Emmerdale as Hilary Potts, mother of the vicar's wife, Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy).
In 2008, Wilcox portrayed Bette Davis in a theatrical play, Whatever Happened to the Cotton Dress Girl?. In 2010, she portrayed a mother of a gay son in a theatrical play, Canary.
In November 2010, Wilcox took the leading role as a Liverpudlian private eye in Following from the Front, a BBC radio play first broadcast in November 2010 and again in January 2015
Wilcox played Pauline Johnson in the Sky1 sitcom series Mount Pleasant from 2011 to 2017.
In addition to her other work, Wilcox has made guest appearances in programmes such as Footballers' Wives, Holby City and Down to Earth.
From 2014 to 2016, she had a starring role in the comedy series Boomers. In 2015, she had a role in an episode of Still Open All Hours.
In 2017, Wilcox filmed series 3 of Upstart Crow - the Shakespearean sitcom starring David Mitchell and penned by Ben Elton.
Also in 2017 Wilcox filmed the last episode of the Sky 1 series Mount Pleasant after 7 years of playing Pauline Johnson.
Wilcox's theatre credits include Chris Hannan's play What Shadows about Enoch Powell's famous "Rivers of Blood" speech on immigration. This was performed at the Birmingham Rep, Edinburgh Lyceum and the Park Theatre, London in 2016 and 2017.
Other theatrical work includes Great Expectations (Vaudeville Theatre); Canary (Liverpool Everyman / Hampstead Theatre); Dreams of Violence (Soho Theatre) and La Cage aux Folles (Playhouse Theatre).
Wilcox has also performed radio and voiceover work, and read the audiobook Three Things About Elsie written by Joanna Cannon.
Wilcox has appeared in Coronation Street since 2020, playing the role of Elaine Jones, a former abuse victim and first wife of Geoff Metcalfe (Ian Bartholomew) and mother of established character Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine). She previously appeared in Coronation Street in 1969 as Ray Langton's sister Janice.

## Personal life

Wilcox was married to fellow actor Derek Seaton from 1969 until his death in 1979 from a brain haemorrhage aged 35.
In 1991, Wilcox married Nelson "Skip" Riddle, an American businessman and the eldest son of the composer, bandleader and arranger Nelson Riddle.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1973 | The Lovers! | Beryl Battersby |
| 1974 | Man About the House | Chrissy Plummer |
| 1993 | The Higher Mortals | Miss Bird |
| 1998 | The Stalker's Apprentice | Heather Walwyn |
| 2006 | Scoop | Garden Party Guest |
| 2007 | Outlaw | Iris |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1969 | The Wednesday Play | Linda | Episode: "The Apprentices" |
| 1969 | Her Majesty's Pleasure | Jennifer Bottomley | Episode: "All God's Chillun" |
| 1969 | Coronation Street | Janice Langton | 5 episodes |
| 1969 | Z-Cars | Joan | 2 episodes |
| 1969 | Hadleigh | Lolly | Episode: "Patron of the Arts" |
| 1969–1970 | The Dustbinmen | Naomi | 2 episodes |
| 1970 | Kate | Rosemary Phelps | Episode: "The Love of Two Women" |
| 1970–1971 | The Lovers | Beryl Battersby | All 13 episodes |
| 1970 | Biography | Hilde | Episode: "I Measured the Skies" |
| 1971 | ITV Sunday Night Drama | Julie | Episode: "The Girl Upstairs" |
| 1971 | On the House | Beryl Bagley | Episode: "Will the Real Harvey Micklethwaite Please Stand Up?" |
| 1971 | The Onedin Line | Agnes Bascombe | Episode: "Salvage" |
| 1971–1972 | The Liver Birds | Gloria Titlark | 3 episodes |
| 1972 | The Benny Hill Show | Carol Fox | Episode: "Show 12" |
| 1972 | Scene | Trish | Episode: "Quiet Afternoon" |
| 1972 | Z-Cars | Nancy Roberts | Episode: "Public Relations" |
| 1972 | Thirty Minutes Worth | Various | Episode #1.1 |
| 1973 | Full House | Alice | Episode #1.12 |
| 1975 | Whodunnit? | Self-Panelist | TV Game Show |
| 1973–1976 | Man About the House | Chrissy Plummer | All 39 episodes |
| 1977–1978 | Miss Jones and Son | Elizabeth Jones | All 12 episodes |
| 1977 | The Cost of Loving | Thelma Baynes | Episode: "The Human Element" |
| 1978 | Play for Today | Miss Selby | Episode: "The After-Dinner Joke" |
| 1980 | Peter Cook & Co. | Various | TV film |
| 1981 | Crown Court | Gillian Seymour | Episode: "Leonora" |
| 1985 | The Bright Side | Cynthia Bright | All 6 episodes |
| 1985 | Mrs. Capper's Birthday | Maureen | TV film |
| 1988 | Boon | Dorothy North | Episode: "Topspin" |
| 1991 | Fiddlers Three | Ros West | All 14 episodes |
| 1992 | Brookside | Angela Heery QC | Episode #1185 |
| 1993 | Casualty | Rosalind Paynter | Episode: "Getting Involved" |
| 1994 | Smokescreen | Sara Bean | All 6 episodes |
| 1994 | Blue Heaven | Ivy Sandford | All 6 episodes |
| 1995–2001 | The Queen's Nose | Audrey Parker | 24 episodes |
| 1996 | Life After Birth | Sylv | All 6 episodes |
| 1996 | It Must Be Love | Irene | TV film |
| 1999 | Peak Practice | Amanda Blake | Episode: "Alone" |
| 2002 | Footballers' Wives | Marguerite Laslett | 3 episodes |
| 2002 | Holby City | Helen Johnson | Episode: "Touch and Go" |
| 2004 | Merseybeat | Sheila O'Brien | Episode: "Distant Vices" |
| 2004 | The Afternoon Play | Kathy Hughes | Episode: "Viva Las Blackpool" |
| 2004–2005 | The Smoking Room | Lillian | All 17 episodes |
| 2004 | All About Me | Sheila | Episode: "The First Mrs Craddock" |
| 2005 | Down to Earth | Frank's Wife | Episode: "Trouble 'n' Strife" |
| 2005 | Murder in Suburbia | Wendy Archer | Episode: "Estate Agents" |
| 2006 | Doctors | Selena McKinnon | Episode: "Running Time" |
| 2006 | The Green Green Grass | Petunia Lane | Episode: "Brothers and Sisters" |
| 2007 | Blue Murder | Pamela Halliwell | Episode: "Desperate Measures" |
| 2007–2008 | Emmerdale | Hilary Potts | Regular role; 71 episodes |
| 2007–2010 | The Large Family | Linda Large | Voice; All 52 episodes |
| 2008 | A Touch of Frost | Gloria Collingham | Episode: "Mind Games" |
| 2010 | Moving On | Gail | Episode: "Rules of the Game" |
| 2010–2011 | Rock & Chips | Violet Trotter | 2 episodes |
| 2011 | Doctors | Sue Gillen | 2 episodes |
| 2011–2017 | Mount Pleasant | Pauline | 49 episodes |
| 2014 | Jonathan Creek | Hazel Prosser | Episode: "The Letters of Septimus Noone" |
| 2014–2016 | Boomers | Carol | All 13 episodes |
| 2015 | Still Open All Hours | Linda | Episode: #1.6 |
| 2016–2018 | Upstart Crow | Mary Shakespeare | All 21 episodes |
| 2017–2019 | Living the Dream | Maureen | 9 episodes |
| 2018 | Girlfriends | Carole Hardcastle | 5 episodes |
| 2018 | Moving On | Aggie | Episode: "Lost" |
| 2020 | Grantchester | Diana | 4 episodes |
| 2020–2021 | Trying | Sandra | 7 episodes |
| 2020–2023 | Coronation Street | Elaine Jones | Regular role |
| 2023 | Man About The House: 50 Years Of Laughter | Herself | Documentary |
| 2024 | Avoidance | Shirley | Episode: #2.4 |
| 2024 | The Cleaner | Sue | Series 3: 3. The Committee |