Paula Wilcox
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Paula Wilcox (born 13 December, 1949 in Manchester) is an English actress.
Wilcox, famed for her unusual beauty, first came to public attention while a member of the National Youth Theatre when she was offered her first starring television role in The Lovers, an ITV sitcom written by Jack Rosenthal and co-starring the equally precocious and unknown Richard Beckinsale. She played Beryl Battersby, a flighty but principled young woman who would not allow her boyfriend Geoffrey (Beckinsale) to have a sexual relationship with her until marriage. There were two series of The Lovers, plus a feature film.
Although this role won Wilcox many admirers on a personal and professional level, it was her next sitcom part that made her a major star. In Man About The House, she played Chrissy Plummer, another flighty but principled woman who was regularly in a flirtatious battle of wits with her male flatmate Robin, played by Richard O'Sullivan. The show was a huge success and ended with Wilcox's character marrying Robin's brother Norman (Norman Eshley). She also starred in the feature film of the same show.
In 1977, Wilcox took the eponymous role in Miss Jones and Son, a BBC show which broke new ground as the first depiction of a single mother in British situation comedy.
After a break to raise a family, Wilcox went back to the theatre. In London's West End she has appeared as Florence the obsessive housewife in Neil Simon's comedy The (female) Odd Couple; the Queen in The Queen and I by Sue Townsend, and Shirley Valentine in Willy Russell's one-woman play. She also performed in Shakespeare plays at the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park and at the Old Vic in Bristol.
Wilcox returned to sitcom in 1992 to play the character of Ivy Sandford in the pilot of Frank Skinner's Blue Heaven on Channel 4. This later became a series. Skinner later admitted in his autobiography that he recruited Wilcox for the role not just because of her abilities, but because he fancied her when he was a teenager. Wilcox did attract a sizeable following of male fans during her 1970s heyday.
In recent years, Wilcox has made guest appearances in programmes such as Footballers Wives, Holby City and Down to Earth. She then played the role of Lilian in The Smoking Room.
She has voiced numerous commercials (including Renault for many years) and has narrated documentaries and audio books.
Wilcox was left widowed when her first husband died.
She has since married Nelson Skip Riddle, son of the bandleader and arranger Nelson Riddle.
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