As Happy Valley success cements her place as leading TV actress, what is next for Sarah Lancashire in 2023?

The versatility of actress Sarah Lancashire has seen her play a leading role in musicals, TV soaps and crime dramas, as well as showcasing her comedic timing in various forms.

She found fame in her 20s as the aspiring model, Raquel, and her on and off again relationship with Curly Watts in ITV soap Coronation Street. Her comic timing and ability to give warmth to Raquel, who was originally written in a less sympathetic way, all give testament to the intellect of Lancashire.

Her part on Coronation Street lasted four years and she is often listed as one of the street's most loveable characters.

Sarah has displayed a discerning approach to future roles she has undertaken. Her latest acting work in Happy Valley has been highly praised by audience and critics alike.

Happy Valley came to an end on Sunday night (5 February) after three seasons, 18 episodes and nine years. The final episode of the BBC drama lived up to the incredible hype, with many viewers hailing the episode as 'a masterpiece' and 'one of the greatest television finales of all'.

Lancashire has praised the writing of Sally Wainwright, as she deploys a war of words and suspense, rather than relying on weapons and extreme violence. In an interview after winning a Bafta in 2017 for her role as Sgt Catherine Cawood, Sarah said it would be difficult to find other projects which would measure up to what she had experienced on Happy Valley.

Even Bob Dylan is a fan of Happy Valley, according to the show's James Norton, who plays the villain.

Camaraderie on set must have been good as Sarah gifted everyone a very unique and local present. It has been revealed that the actress visited The Yorkshire Soap Company while filming for the show and decided to create a candle for her pals.

They even had a personalised message from Sarah on the candles, which read: 'The Happy Valley Trilogy (2014 - 2022). I'm the best copper that ever lived but Code 11..... job done.'

Aside from Happy Valley, Sarah has appeared in Where the Heart Is, Lark Rise to Candleford, Five Daughters, Clocking Off, Last Tango in Halifax, as well as stage productions of Blood Brothers, Guys and Dolls and Betty Blue Eyes.

As her time on screen has evolved in terms of style and subject matter, so too has her personal life.

At the age of 22, Lancashire married her first serious boyfriend, Gary Hargreaves, a music lecturer 11 years her senior, whom she had met four years earlier. Recalling the circumstances of her first marriage in 2001, Lancashire stated she only married because she became pregnant and possessed both a traditional outlook and a fear of the stigma of having a child out of wedlock. Thomas, her first child with Hargreaves, was born in 1987; a second son, Matthew, was born in 1989.

Sarah suffered from depression throughout her teenage years and for chunks of time in her 20s.

Two years into her role on Coronation Street Lancashire experienced a 14-month nervous breakdown but did not confide in anyone besides her close family or take any time off work, which in retrospect she deemed "the worst thing [she] could have done. During the worst part of her experience Lancashire described herself as "hysterical at the thought of getting out of bed". Her mother, Hilda, forced her to seek medical assistance for her condition, which Lancashire states "gave me my life back", her twenties having been "a write-off".

She separated from Hargreaves in 1995 and has said it was important for her to spend time alone. She was single for five years as she co-parented the two sons with Hargreaves.

In August 2001 Lancashire married television executive Peter Salmon. He had proposed to Lancashire in New York during a holiday at Easter 2001. The two had begun a romantic relationship in the summer of 2000, though they had first met several years earlier while she was portraying Raquel on Coronation Street and he was employed by Granada Studios, which produces the soap opera. In March 2003 Lancashire gave birth to her third son, Joseph.

What's next for Sarah?

Lancashire will next work on the second series of HBO Max drama, Julia, in which she plays the title character. The series tells the real life story of American TV chef Julia Child. Pirates of the Caribbean actor Tom Hollander also stars.

She took on her first US role as pioneering TV chef Julia Child, in a new eight-part series on Sky Atlantic and NOW in 2022.

She plays Julia Child who was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognised for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.