Like many young actors
of her generation Yates found her first professional acting roles in local
repertory theatre. She was signed to the Liverpool Repertory Company and
appeared in a string of productions staged at the Liverpool Playhouse; a
version of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk
Circle (October 1964), All In Good
Time (January and February 1965) supporting Anthony Hopkins, The Playboy of the Western World (April 1965),
Seidman and Son (August and September
1965) and Life Worth Living during
February 1966. During 1966 and 1967 she was attached to the repertory company
at the Little Theatre in Bristol where she appeared in several stage
productions including A Tale of Two
Cities, Hindle Wakes and Bartholomew
Fair as Dame Overdo.
Her first TV appearance
was in the series Suspicion, an ATV
anthology drama series, where she played Miss Peters in the debut episode ‘Plain
Jane’ (23rd November 1971). The series was produced by Nicholas
Palmer who would also go on to act as producer on the Against the Crowd series and the episode ‘Murrain’. She then
returned to the stage playing for The English Stage Company at the Royal Court,
London in a run of Lear which was
staged from 1971 to 1972. Her next television appearance was in the drama
series Villains. The series depicted
the exploits of nine bank robbers, led by David Daker as George, meeting in
prison and then escaping. The drama then follows the stories of each man and
viewers learn about their lives, the women in their lives and the robbery
itself over thirteen episodes. Yates played Julie Owens, a wife of one of the
robbers, Bernie Owens, portrayed by Tom Adams in the episode ‘Bernie’ (22nd
September 1972). The series also provided early credits for rising stars such
as Martin Shaw, Alun Armstrong and Bob Hoskins.
1973 would be a very busy year for Yates. She began the year by appearing in
her third, and most acclaimed, Play For
Today, with a role in the Colin Welland written ‘Kisses At Fifty’ (22nd
January 1973) as the young barmaid Audrey who begins an affair with the middle
aged Harry (Bill Maynard). Next was a headlining role as the character Marilyn
in the one off Granada drama Putting on
the Agony (28th
February 1973). She must have had a good agent as this was soon followed with the
role of Mrs Winrose in the first episode of the second season of the Thames
Television anthology series Six Days of
Justice – ‘The Counsellor’ (1st May 1973). Her next appearance
was playing Martha Ainsworth in the Crown
Court story ‘Destruct, Destruct’ transmitted between 29th August
1973 and 31st August 1973. This was a somewhat controversial case
for the cosy daytime drama series - a thirteen year old boy is charged with the
murder of his twelve year old friend by suffocating him with a plastic bag. The
jury must decide if it was a game that went horribly wrong or if there was real
intent to harm. Harriet’s Back in Town
was a Thames Television afternoon drama with William Russell and Pauline Yates
in the lead roles as Tom and Harriet Preston. Yates appeared in two episodes
broadcast 4th and 5th September 1973, though her major
role for the year was in the Peter Sellers starring film The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973). Yates can be seen as Chrissie
Ellis in the film which tells the story of a retired entertainer who makes his
living as a street musician in London. The film was a resounding flop on its
release and has since faded into obscurity despite the presence of Sellers.
Her
popularity amongst television producers continued into the following year.
First was a role in the long-running BBC police series Z Cars. Yates played June Cunningham in the episode ‘Waste’ (25th February 1974) which
is notable for the cast also featuring Lewis Collins in an appearance before
being cast in The Professionals. Her
next TV appearance was as Mrs Ellis, wife of Ron Moody’s Mr Ellis, in ‘Mr Ellis
Vs the People’ (16th July 1974), the very first episode of the anthology
drama series Village Hall. She then played
Virginia Fox in two episodes of the fourth season of the business drama The Brothers – ‘Loneliness’ (6th
October 1974) and ‘Hit and Miss’ (13th October 1974). She also
appeared in the David Essex starring film Stardust
(1974) in a small uncredited role.
Yates began
the next year with an appearance in the thirty minute experimental drama
anthology Centre Play in the episode ‘A
Helping Hand’ (27th January 1975) written by Howard Schuman. She was
of only three cast members, playing a young girl called Pam opposite the actors
Gawn Grainger and Rowena Cooper as a married couple. The play opens with Cooper
finding her husband Grainger sat amongst a wrecked living room. He tells her
that he had bought Pam home to help her as she was in distress and that she had
flipped and trashed the room. However, there is more to this than meets the
eye… Yates’ next engagement was as Mrs Adam in an episode of the BBC espionage
series Spy Trap – ‘The Melioidosis
Report’ (16th May 1975)
which also featured her old Villains co-star Tom Adams in the cast. Outside of
TV she also made a rare cinema appearance playing Madame Tellier in the British
horror film Legend of the Werewolf
(1975) which featured also featured her old colleague from Village Hall, Ron Moody, in the cast. Her role as Mrs Leach in ‘Murrain’
was next.
She was cast
as Maureen Bell for the ATV one off drama It’s
A Lovely Day Tomorrow (8th October 1975) which recreated the
tragic events during wartime in Bethnal Green when 173 people died on the
London Underground after a panicked crowd stampeded. Between 14th
October 1975 and 14th May 1976 she was a series regular in the
daytime soap opera Couples, playing Jane
Selby in all 87 episodes. She was next seen as May Holmes, an old flame of Jack
Regan, in ‘May’ (25th October 1976), a third season episode of The Sweeney. She then returned to more
experimental work with an appearance in the BBC Two drama anthology series Second City First episode ‘Daft Mam
Blues’ (17th May 1977) written by the renowned playwright David
Halliwell. Yates played a young woman called Lilly whilst Bernard Hill, in an
early role, played a young man called Billy. Her next appearance was in a
controversial British film, The Black
Panther (1977). Based on the true story of a young girl kidnapped and held
for ransom that went tragically wrong the film featured Donald Sumpter as the
kidnapper Donald Neilson and Debbie Farrington as the doomed kidnapped girl
Lesley Whittle. Yates was on hand to appear as Neilson’s unsuspecting and naive
wife. Her other cinema release for the
year was as Mrs Fielding the classic Children’s Film Foundation production Glitterball (1977) which told the
adventures of two teenagers helping an alien stranded on Earth in the form of a
metal ball. Directed by Harley Cokliss on a shoestring budget this short film
has well executed visual effects courtesy of British effects maestro Brian
Johnson of Thunderbirds fame and
animator Barry Leith who had honed his craft on the children’s favourites Paddington and The Wombles. Yates was also an active member of the actor’s union
Equity and served on union council during 1977 and 1978.
During 1978 she concentrated on her
theatre work and could be seen in a lengthy run of the play Touched staged at the Old Vic theatre in London and supporting Nicol
Williamson in a version of John Osbourne’s Inadmissible
Evidence at the Royal Court theatre during autumn 1978. Clive Swift, who
starred in the Beasts episode ‘The
Dummy’, was also in the cast.
She was next seen on TV as
Mam, opposite Alun Armstrong playing Dad, in the play A Day on the Sands (24th February 1979) which was filmed
in Morecambe, Lancashire which actually does not have sandy beaches, only mud
banks[1].
This was the last of six plays written by Alan Bennett for London Weekend
Television and was a comedy drama about the Cooper family who go to Morecambe
instead of the usual Minorca in Spain for their family holiday. The play is
based on Bennett’s own childhood experiences of family holidays in Morecambe
and the surrounding area.
Next was another themed drama anthology series, The Other Side, which saw Yates appearing in the episode ‘Connie’ (27th April 1979) as the titular character. The Other Side’s unifying theme concerned those that did not fit into the accepted norms of society and Connie was such an outsider; unmarried and still living at home with her elderly mother. Yates came in for high praise in contemporary reviews including the trade newspaper The Stage which commented “Here was a splendid fusion of technique and emotional involvement with the character which makes for a highly satisfying experience.[2]” She had another film role with an appearance in Priest of Love (1981) which featured Ian McKellen playing D H Lawrence in the last years of his life following the banning of his novel The Rainbow. Yates played Ada Lawrence, sister of the famous author. A rare role in a serial was next with Yates playing Mrs Joe Gargery in four episodes the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations transmitted between 4th October 1981 and 27th December 1981. Theatre wise she was engaged with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a production of Richard III playing the Duchess of York at the Aldwych Theatre in London and appeared in a revival of Touched staged at the Royal Court theatre.
The
following year was a social worker in the flagship social drama Walter (2nd November 1982) which aired on the launch night of
Channel 4. Her next TV appearance was in the Alan Bennett BBC Two comedy drama Objects of Affection with Yates playing
Marjory in the episode ‘Marks’ (10th
December 1982). The play was directed by Piers Haggard who had previously
dabbled in folk horror with the British horror film Blood On Satan’s Claw (1971) as well as directing the final Quatermass[3]
TV series, with John Mills as the scientist, for ITV in 1979. She made no TV or
film appearances in 1983 though she appeared in several prestigious stage
productions including a tour with The Royal Shakespeare Company and playing
Mathilde Cimmaruta in a production of Inner
Voices with the National Theatre.
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Her first TV
role for the following year was in the John Thaw starring series Mitch with Yates cast as Carol Blackburn in the episode ‘Sleeping Dogs’
(7th September 1984). She then had a rare recurring role in the
acclaimed series Morgan’s Boy (11th
October 1984 to 29th November 1984) which starred Gareth Thomas as a
Welsh sheep farmer. Yates can be seen in four episodes of the BBC series as the
supporting character Val Turner. Yates appeared in a production of Night Mother at the Hampstead Theatre,
London during February 1985. She was then cast as Verity Braithwaite alongside
such respected thespians as Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench and Ian Holm in the
British film drama Wetherby (1985),
written and directed by David Hare. Yates also had a small role in an American
TV movie biopic of Florence Nightingale
(7th April 1985) which starred Jaclyn Smith in the lead role. Then
there was more theatre work with a play about the dancer Isadora Duncan, When She Dances, presented during
November and December 1985. Dead Man’s
Folly (8th January 1986) was an American TV movie which featured
Peter Ustinov as the Agatha Christie creation Hercule Poirot. Yates had a tiny
uncredited role as Mrs Tucker. Her theatre work continued with acclaimed
performances in a Cambridge Theatre Company production of The Killing of Sister George staged during April and May 1986 in
Oxford, The Daughter-In-Law during February 1987 in Birmingham, Thatcher’s Women in March 1987 at
London’s Tricycle Theatre and Children of
the Dust at the Soho Poly over March 1988.
‘Suffer Little Children’ (22nd January 1987) was an episode of Worlds Beyond, a horror themed British TV anthology programme. Yates received third billing as Margaret with Karen Black headlining as an American visiting her English friend. Whilst staying at her friend’s home Black see the ghost of a little boy as a tale of revenge begins to unfold. Yates played the supporting role of the cook in the British political thriller A Very British Coup transmitted between 3rd July and 19th June 1988. She was then inactive on TV for a few years whilst she was contracted with The Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in a variety productions including Edward IV as the Duchess of York, Mrs Stanley in The Man Who Came To Dinner and Widow Blackacre in The Plain Dealer. During 1990 and 1991 Yates again undertook the role of the Duchess of York in a touring production of Richard III as well as appearing in a string of plays produced at the Young Vic theatre in London up until 1992. She made her TV return as a guest star in ‘Coverup’ (15th October 1991) an episode of the popular series Boon. During January 1992 Yates could be seen in the Young Vic production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons with Ian Bannen in the lead role. During this period (1992 to 1997) Yates was also extremely busy on the stage playing one of the witches in a Royal Shakespeare Company touring production of Macbeth throughout 1993 and 1994. She then appeared in The Brutality of Fact at New End Theatre, London during 1995 and as Linda Loman in a National Theatre staging of Death of a Salesman during 1996 and 1997. More theatre work followed with Yates playing Sibyl Birling in a touring production of An Inspector Calls during 1998 and 1999. She was next seen on TV as Mother Morel in a two-part version of D H Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers (12th and 13th January 2003) which also featured Sarah Lancashire as Gertrude Morel. This was followed by the role of Aunty Pat in episode four of the first season of the Channel Four medical comedy drama No Angels (23rd March 2004).
2004 was the year that Yates first undertook the role that currently defines her in the public eye. First appearing in the third episode of the popular Channel Four comedy drama Shameless (27th January 2004) as a one-off appearance as Carol Fisher, mother of the regular character Veronica Fisher (Maxine Peake). Yates would become a series regular as Carol in the forthcoming seasons running all the way through to the fourth season transmitted in 2007. This role kept Yates extremely busy and she made few guest appearances in other programmes during this period. She made a memorable Toby in an unconventional interpretation of Twelfth Night staged by The Royal Shakespeare Company between August and October 2007. The cast was headlined by John Lithgow. Other theatre engagements included a run of Honeymoon Suite during January and February 2004 at the Royal Court theatre. In 2010 Yates made the little seen British multi-story drama film Edge which featured her Shameless co-star Maxine Peake and was written and directed by Carol Morley, who would make the critically acclaimed documentary Dreams of a Life (2011). Yates continues to be a very active guest actor on TV with her most recent appearances including an episode of the third season of the hard hitting BBC cop drama Line of Duty (21st April 2016) and two episodes of Channel Four sitcom Damned created by Morwenna Banks and Jo Brand. Yates played the dementia afflicted Audrey in two episodes transmitted 18th and 25th October 2016. She also guest starred in the detective series Shakespeare & Hathaway as the character Edie Grimes in the episode ‘Toil and Trouble’ (2nd March 2018) and was also seen as Frances in ‘The Client’ (23rd June 2018), an episode of the crime thriller series Ransom. Other recent TV appearances include Almost Never (2019) and the day time play ‘Man of Steel’ (2nd March 2020), part of the anthology series Moving On written by Jimmy McGovern.
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