Lesley Joseph

Mother Superior (UK Tour) / Sister Mary Lazarus (Manchester)

Lesley is best known for playing Dorien Green, the neighbour from hell, in the sitcom Birds of a Feather, alongside Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson. Having recorded over 130 episodes, Dorien Green became a national intuition, watched at its height by 23 million people.

In 2018, Lesley starred as Frau Blücher in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein at the Garrick Theatre, a performance which earned Lesley an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. After this, Lesley toured the country in Annie the Musical, reprising her role as Miss Hannigan and also Calendar Girls the Musical.

She has a wealth of theatrical experience to her credit, in virtually all aspects of the business, having trained at LAMDA before carving out a career for herself on stage. Her roles in theatre have been varied from appearing in the Sir Peter Hall’s production of Home, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Piaf by Pam Gems, Frosine in The Miser with Ian Richardson, Dooniasha in The Cherry Orchard, to Hortense in The Boyfriend amongst others. She played Mrs Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She toured with Edward Hardwicke in Office Suite by Alan Bennett, and produced and starred in Singular Women, a one-woman show written by Stewart Permutt, at The Kings Head. It was in Exclusive Yarns written by Gary Lyons and Stewart Permutt, at the Comedy Theatre that Lesley was seen by Laurence Marks, which led to Birds of a Feather.

To families in every corner of Britain, Lesley Joseph is also well known for her work in pantomimes. She toured with John Nettles for eight years in Dick Whittington, and it was at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton that Michael Aspel presented her with the big red book for This Is Your Life.

On television, she starred in the ITV soap Night and Day for nearly two years. Other TV appearances include Rumble with Brian Glover, Easy Money, Spywatch, Minder, Roots, The Knowledge and many others. She played Green Beryl in the Channel 5 series, The Secret of Eel Island and guest-starred as Erica in the BBC’s The Slammer.

Lesley has appeared in scores of light entertainment shows; she had a regular spot on GMTV for three years as well as presenting on Wish You Were Here. Lesley has also hosted a highly successful weekly talk show on BBC London and was honoured to have a rose named after her at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Lesley also donned her dancing shoes as one of the contestants in 2016 Strictly Come Dancing with dance partner Anton du Beke. Lesley joined the hit Strictly Come Dancing National Arena Tour.
 
Recently, Lesley starred in the BBC’s Pilgrimage: The Road To Rome, where she embarked on a pilgrimage from the Swiss Alps to Rome and met the Pope.