Patricia Hodge

Early life Hodge was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, daughter of Eric Hodge and Marion, née Phillips. Eric Hodge was from Birkdale, Southport, and served in the RAF for ten years, becoming a flight lieutenant. The Hodges were the managers of the Royal Hotel in Grimsby, and later ran the Wortley Hotel in Scunthorpe, then the Broadway Hotel in Letchworth.

Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Park Avenue in Grimsby and then St Helen's School, Northwood, Middlesex, before attending Maria Grey College in Twickenham (later part of Brunel University London) to train as a teacher. She taught English and drama at Russell County Primary School in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, while also applying to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She started at LAMDA when she was 22 and was awarded the Eveline Evans Award for Best Actress on graduation.

Career Hodge made her professional stage debut in the Howard Barker play No-One Was Saved at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1971. She made her West End debut in Rookery Nook in 1972 and worked with Bob Fosse in 1973 on Pippin. However, when applying for television work, she found she had become classed as a theatre actress. Having made the breakthrough in the role of Phyllida (Trant) Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey, she found when trying to make the occasional return to theatre work that she had been classed as a television actress.

She has appeared in roles in The Naked Civil Servant opposite John Hurt, shortly after she featured in the BBC 2 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse starring Julie Covington, Bernard Cribbins and Paul Jones. It was repeated on BBC1 in 1977. She featured as Myra Arundel in the 1984 BBC version of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, as Margaret Thatcher in The Falklands Play, and in 2007 as Betty, the wife of tycoon Robert Maxwell, in the BBC TV drama Maxwell opposite David Suchet. She took the female lead in the 1983 film, Betrayal (based on Harold Pinter's play Betrayal), a roman à clef derived from the playwright's affair with broadcaster Joan Bakewell.

She was nominated for a BAFTA for her role in a television adaptation of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac in 1987, and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the production of Money at the National Theatre.

She bought the rights of the book Portrait of a Marriage and is credited with developing a TV series of the same name in association with the BBC in 1990 adapted by writer Penelope Mortimer.

She co-starred with Dame Judi Dench in the 1995 London revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, at the National Theatre, as Countess Charlotte Malcolm. In 2003, Hodge featured in His Dark Materials, one of Nicholas Hytner's early productions as its Artistic Director, her third role on the Olivier Theatre stage.

Hodge is an Honorary Graduate (DLitt) of Brunel University and one of the founder members of the Brunel Club. From 2009 to 2015, she played a comedy role in the BBC sitcom Miranda, as the mother of the eponymous main character. Hodge reprised the role alongside the rest of the cast for the 2017 Royal Variety Performance. In 2012 she toured in Christopher Luscombe's revival of Dandy Dick, starring alongside Nicholas Le Prevost. She is Joint President of Grimsby's Caxton Theatre and a Trustee of LAMDA, her alma mater.

In 2008, she guest-starred in an episode of Hustle within the 4th series, playing the character of Veronica Powell. After the BBC commissioned the show for a 5th series in February 2008, it was planned Hodge would make an additional appearance; however, due to on-set filming issues, the episode her character would have appeared in was never finished, and subsequently never aired. The release of the 5th series was delayed as a result.

In 2018, Hodge played Ursula, the mother of Liberal MP and party leader Jeremy Thorpe (played by Hugh Grant) in BBC Television's A Very English Scandal.

In April 2021, it was announced that Hodge would play the role of Mrs. Pumphrey in the television series All Creatures Great and Small, taking over from Diana Rigg, who had died the previous year.

Delayed for a year from autumn 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hodge was invited by Nigel Havers to star opposite him in Noël Coward's Private Lives, the inaugural production of the Nigel Havers Theatre Company, directed by one of her previous collaborators Christopher Luscombe.

Hodge was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

In December 2025 Hodge played Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Richard Brinsley Sheridan play, at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London.

Television Year Title Role Notes 1973 Menace Charmian Episode: "Valentine" 1975 Anne Baberton All 3 episodes Quiller Kate Episode: "Night of the Father" Ballet Teacher TV film Great Big Groovy Horse TV film 1976 Softly, Softly: Task Force Chris Stroud Episode: "A Shot in the Dark" 1977 Jackanory Playhouse Tisiphone Episode: "The Apple of Discord" 1978 Target Laura Bentley Episode: "Figures of Importance" Disraeli Rosina Bulwer Lytton 2 episodes Edward & Mrs. Simpson Lady Diana Cooper 3 episodes Maisie TV film 1978–1992 Rumpole of the Bailey Phyllida Erskine-Brown 17 episodes 1979 Lieutenant Kije Princess Sasha Voice; TV film 1980 Ann Holly Episode: "Involvement" 1980–1981 Sybilla Howarth 6 episodes 1980–1982 Holding the Fort Penny Milburn All 20 episodes 1981 Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years Lady Londonderry Episode: "His Own Funeral" 1981–1982 Nanny Dorinda Sackville 4 episodes 1983 Jemima Shore Investigates Jemima Shore All 12 episodes 1984 Hay Fever Myra Arundel TV film 1985 Time for Murder Margaret Tutting Episode: "Dust to Dust" Behind Enemy Lines Elizabeth Beaumont TV film 1986 Mary Fisher All 4 episodes The Return of Sherlock Holmes Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope Episode: "The Second Stain" Robin of Sherwood Queen Hadwisa Episode: "The Pretender" Screen Two Monica Episode: "Hotel du Lac" 1987 Anna Quayne TV film First Sight Estelle Episode: "Exclusive Yarns" 1988 Thieves in the Night Lady Joyce TV film 1989 Inspector Morse Lady Hanbury Episode: "Ghost in the Machine" Olivia TV film Victoria Wood Moira Episode: "Staying In" Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming Lady Evelyn TV film 1990 Heat of the Day Stella TV film 1991 Rich Tea and Sympathy Julia Merrygrove All 6 episodes 1992 Joanna May Both 2 episodes 1996 Geraldine Hackstraw All 7 episodes Lady Julia Verinder TV film 1999 Procula Pilate TV film 1999 Lesley Garrett Tonight (Programme 2) BBC2 TV (singing 'Three little maids from school', with Lily Savage) 2002 Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher MP TV film Waking the Dead Lady Alice Beatty Episode: "Special Relationship" 2003 Sweet Medicine Georgina Sweet All 10 episodes 2006 Agatha Christie's Marple Mrs Evadne Willett Episode: "The Sittaford Mystery" 2007 Hustle Veronica Powell Episode: "Getting Even" Maxwell Betty Maxwell TV film 2009–2015 Miranda Penny All 20 episodes 2012 In Love With... Clare Episode: "In Love with Coward" 2013 Agatha Christie's Poirot Madame Olivier Episode: "The Big Four" 2015 Downton Abbey Mrs Miranda Pelham Episode: "The Finale" 2018 Ursula Thorpe 3 episodes 2019 Four Weddings and a Funeral Mrs Thorpe-Blood Episode: "The Winner Takes It All" 2020 Roadkill Lady Roche 2 episodes 2021– All Creatures Great and Small Mrs Pumphrey Series 2 onwards 2022 Murder in Provence Florence Bonnet Recurring 2023 For the Love of Paul O'Grady Narrator TV Special 2025 Death Valley Helena Episode 5 2026 Miriam Crace / Lady Margaret Chalfont Upcoming six-part series

Stage No-One Was Saved, 1971 Rookery Nook, 1972 Popkiss, 1972 Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1973 Pippin, 1973 Hair, 1974 The Beggar's Opera, 1975 Pal Joey, 1976 Look Back in Anger, 1976 Then and Now, 1979 (Emma Baildon) The Mitford Girls, 1981 (Nancy and Murv) As You Like It, 1983 (Rosalind) Benefactors, 1984 premiere production (Jane Kitzinger) Lady in the Dark, 1988 (Liza Elliott) Noël and Gertie, 1989–90 (Gertie) Shades, 1992 Separate Tables, 1993 (Miss Railton-Bell) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1994–95 (Jean Brodie) A Little Night Music, 1995–96 (Countess Charlotte Malcolm) His Dark Materials, 2003–04 (Mrs Coulter) Copenhagen, 2018 A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, 2019 Private Lives, 2021–22 Watch on the Rhine, 2022–23 Private Lives, 2023 (Amanda) Pippin, 2024 (50th anniversary concert) The Rivals, 2025–26 (Mrs Malaprop)

Awards and nominations