Sue Johnston makes looking after other people seem like work, even when the scene is funny. We value her unforced delivery and the attention she gives to women whom their families take for granted.
Fi1m perspective
In The Royle Family (1998), Barbara Royle answers another slight with an offer of a brew. Sue Johnston makes that response seem habitual, and still lets us notice how much Barbara has to put up with. We were moved by the way she keeps offering care to people who keep taking it for granted. Ricky Tomlinson’s Jim can complain from his armchair because someone else is doing the work of running the house. Johnston is excellent at making that work visible without turning every scene into a request for our sympathy.
The domestic roles have been central to her television work, from Sheila Grant in Brookside (1982), whom she played until 1990, to Barbara. As Vera, a miner’s wife in Mark Herman’s Brassed Off (1996), she belongs to another community under pressure. We recommend that film with a reservation about its awkward changes of tone: the comedy and the threatened mining community’s troubles do not always sit comfortably together. It is a useful companion to the sitcom, though Barbara gives us much more to say about Johnston herself.
Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash build The Royle Family around the family watching television, giving ordinary exchanges time to register. Johnston’s natural delivery suits that patience: Barbara sounds as though she has been living with these people for years. She does not need to compete with Jim’s running commentary on prices or Aherne’s comfortably idle Denise. Her readiness to help tells us something less comforting about the household, too: nobody else has much reason to change while Barbara is there to oblige.
The long run as Dr Grace Foley, the psychological profiler in Waking the Dead (2000), also matters. It gave her another long-running television role, this time in a crime drama, and a part beyond the northern matriarchs with whom she is so often associated. That casting habit can make a dependable actor seem narrower than the parts she has actually played. For the clearest introduction to what she can do, start with The Royle Family and watch Barbara while Jim is talking.
Biography
Sue Johnston is an English actress. Born Susan Wright on 7 December 1943 in Warrington, she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
She is known for playing Sheila Grant in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside (1982–1990), Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy The Royle Family (1998–2012), Grace Foley in the BBC drama Waking the Dead (2000–2011), Gloria Price in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2012–2014) and Miss Denker in the ITV drama Downton Abbey (2014–2015). She also appeared as Vera in the film Brassed Off (1996).
Johnston won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actress in 2000 for The Royle Family and was appointed OBE in 2009.
