Alison Steadman in the late Mike Stott's "My Mad Grandad" on BBC Radio 4. In Manchester in 1972, shooting his television film "Hard Labour", director Mike Leigh drove over to Liverpool to see Ted Whitehead's play "The Foursome", (Steadman was in the Liverpool Everyman cast). He asked Steadman to be in his film. "During the preparation of the film, Mike and Alison, as they both say, 'got together.'" They married in 1973 and had two sons, Toby (b. February 1978) and Leo (b. August 1981). The couple separated in 1995 and divorced in 2001. Steadman's present partner is Michael Elwyn;the couple live
Sunshine (1973 film) film "retained her spirit, and many of the words from her tapes." Some critics also viewed Helton's story as having inspired a second made-for-TV movie, "Message To My Daughter" starring Bonnie Bedelia and Martin Sheen, which was first aired on December 12, 1973 on ABC. In "Message", the dying mother of a baby girl makes tape recordings of advice which her daughter receives many years after the mother's death. However, the film's writer and director denied that "Message" was inspired by Helton, and said that the script was written before "Sunshine". Parts of the film were shot on location in