Sarah Lancashire

Now a familiar face on our TV screens, Sarah's most recent acting credit is in gritty Yorkshire police drama, Happy Valley. Here, she plays sergeant Catherine ...

In 1995, she ended her marriage with Hargreaves and has described the breakup as a "cleansing experience". She has since said that the way she handled her breakdown was "the worst thing [she] could have done". She also stated the fear of stigma associated with having a child out of wedlock as a reason for her deciding to marry. At the age of 17, Sarah began to suffer from depression and this is a condition that would remain with her into adulthood. In 2001, she married her second husband, TV executive Peter Salmon. Things took a turn for the worse in 1993, two years into Sarah's time at Coronation Street, when she suffered a nervous breakdown. And, three years later in 2000, she returned to Coronation Street for one episode as Raquel, whom one of the show's producers said was one of Coronation Street's most popular characters. In 1991, she auditioned for and won the part of Raquel Wolstenhulme, a colleague of supermarket employee Curly Watts. It was here that her interest in acting was born - but she would have to fight for her first few roles. And here, it seems, the stage was set for her continued success. That same year, ITV secured Sarah's exclusivity with a 'golden handcuffs' deal, which meant that for two years she could only star in ITV productions. By 1987, she was making a brief appearance in Coronation Street as Wendy Farmer, a prospective lodger of Jack Duckworth.