Alison Steadman Mike Leigh's "Abigail's Party", which she reprised with the original cast on television. She won an Olivier Award for "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice", and also appeared in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Entertaining Mr Sloane", "Hotel Paradiso", and others in locations as diverse as the Royal Court, the Theatre Royal, the Old Vic, the Hampstead Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Everyman Liverpool and the National Theatre. She starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of Molière's "Tartuffe", which was adapted for BBC television. In 2010, Steadman was cast as Madame Arcati in a revival of
Alison Steadman in May" (1976) and "Abigail's Party" (1977). She received BAFTA TV Award nominations for the 1986 BBC serial "The Singing Detective", and in 2001 for the ITV drama series "Fat Friends" (2000–05). Other television roles include "Pride and Prejudice" (1995), "Gavin & Stacey" (2007–10) and "Orphan Black" (2015–16). Her other film appearances include "A Private Function" (1984), "Clockwise" (1986), "Shirley Valentine" (1989), "Topsy Turvy" (1999) and "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (2004). Steadman was born in Liverpool, the youngest of three sisters born to Marjorie (née Evans) and George Percival Steadman, who worked as a production controller for