Helen Atkinson-Wood

Helen Atkinson-Wood

Acting
1955-03-14
Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England, UK

Biography

Helen Atkinson-Wood is an English actress and comedian born in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire. She studied fine art at the Ruskin School, Oxford University, where she performed with Rowan Atkinson (no relation). She also performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where she met Ben Elton. Whilst at Oxford, she took part in an OUDS production of Richard II. Also in this production was Tim McInnerny, who played the lead. She later appeared together with McInnerny in an episode of Blackadder the Third. This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by contributors. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.

Known For & Full Filmography22 Titles

#1Have I Got News for You

Drama Series - 1990, 16 episodes as Self

7.2 / 10
ComedyNews

Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.

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#2QI

Drama Series - 2003, 16 episodes as Self

7.9 / 10
ComedyTalk

Comedy quiz show full of quirky facts, in which contestants are rewarded more if their answers are 'quite interesting'.

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#3Blackadder

Drama Series - 1983, 16 episodes as Mrs. Miggins

8.0 / 10
Comedy

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.

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#4The Comic Strip Presents...

Drama Series - 1982, 16 episodes as Miranda

7.4 / 10
Comedy

The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who do parodies of films, literature and sometimes major events.

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#5The Young Ones

Drama Series - 1982, 16 episodes as Woman in Advert

7.9 / 10
Comedy

The misadventures of four lunatic students who live in a shared student house. There's Rick, the overblown political one addicted to Cliff Richard, Vyvyan the experimental scientific one/part-time anarchist, Neil the worried hippy, and Mike the ladies' man (at least he is in his mind).

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#6Travelling Man

Drama Series - 1984, 16 episodes as TV Reporter

6.5 / 10
CrimeDrama

After completing a two-year prison sentence for a bribe he didn't take, former DI Alan Lomax wants answers. With at least one luxury left - a narrowboat, and it's on the canals, among the day trippers and travellers, that he means to seek revenge. Not an easy task for an ex-detective isolated on the wrong side of the law.

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#7Girls On Top

Drama Series - 1985, 16 episodes as Jane

4.9 / 10
Comedy

Four girls share a flat together in London. Having nothing in common aside from their gender, they barely manage to co-exist.

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#8Joking Apart

Drama Series - 1993, 16 episodes as Sally

7.0 / 10
Comedy

Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky, who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced. The twelve episodes, broadcast between 1993 and 1995, were directed by Bob Spiers and produced by Andre Ptaszynski for independent production company Pola Jones. The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Some of the episodes in the first series followed a non-linear parallel structure, contrasting the rise of the relationship with the fall. Other episodes were ensemble farces, predominantly including the couple's friends Robert and Tracy. Paul Mark Elliott also appeared as Trevor, Becky's lover.

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#9Chelmsford 123

Drama Series - 1988, 16 episodes as Functio's Wife

7.4 / 10
Comedy

Chelmsford, Britain in the year AD 123; there is a power struggle between Roman governor Aulus Paulinus and the British chieftain, Badvoc. Britain is a miserable place, cold and wet – just the place to exile Aulus for accidentally insulting the Emperor's horse, but also give him something useful to do. Aulus, probably a play on Aulus Platorius Nepos, the governor of Roman Britain between 122 and 125, was a rather delicate Roman, who was usually outwitted by the scheming Badvoc, who hadn't had a haircut for twenty-five years.

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#10KYTV

Drama Series - 1989, 16 episodes Main Cast Role

6.0 / 10
Comedy

KYTV was a sketch-based show which lampooned the new satellite television companies which had begun to operate in the UK. Each week, a different aspect of 'cheap' television production and broadcasting provided the 'theme' for the sketches in the programme. Inept links and amateurish presentation were very much the order of the day.

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#11Saturday Stayback

Drama Series - 1983, 16 episodes Main Cast Role

10.0 / 10
Comedy

A late night comedy show made in 1983 by Central Television, starring Chris Tarrant, performed entirely in a public house. It was a sequel to the controversial O.T.T., itself a spin-off from Tiswas. From these previous shows were regulars Bob Carolgees and Helen Atkinson-Wood, as well as newcomer to television Tony Slattery. Guest appearances included Frank Carson and making his TV debut, impressionist Phil Cool.

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#12Your Cheatin' Heart

Drama Series - 1990, 16 episodes Main Cast Role

6.0 / 10
ComedyDrama

In this fondly remembered mini series John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men.

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#13Your Cheatin' Heart

Drama Series - 1990, 16 episodes as Tamara MacAskill

6.0 / 10
ComedyDrama

In this fondly remembered mini series John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men.

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#14Rita Rudner

Drama Series - 1990, 16 episodes Main Cast Role

8.8 / 10
Comedy

Singer, actress, dancer, comedienne: these are just some of the words the popular American comic can spell. Rita Rudner's first British series features stand-up comedy, sketches and songs.

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#15O.T.T.

Drama Series - 1982, 16 episodes Main Cast Role

8.8 / 10

O.T.T. was a late-night adult version of the anarchic ATV children's show Tiswas, but made by its ITV franchise successor Central Independent Television. It was broadcast at 11.00pm on Saturday nights for one series in 1982. It was created and presented by Chris Tarrant, and also starred ex-Tiswasians John Gorman, Lenny Henry and Bob Carolgees. Helen Atkinson-Wood was the female sidekick replacement for Sally James, who stayed behind to present the concurrent and final series of Tiswas alone.

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#16Bosses From Hell

Movie - 1989, 2h 15m Main Cast Role

8.8 / 10

John Cleese training video about bosses.

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#17Your Cheatin' Heart

Movie - 1990, 2h 15m Main Cast Role

8.0 / 10
MusicComedyDrama

In this fondly remembered mini series John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men.

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#18The Craig Ferguson Show

Movie - 1990, 2h 15m as Various

7.0 / 10
Comedy

Craig Ferguson tells jokes and introduces filmed skits.

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#19Consuela (or, The New Mrs Saunders)

Movie - 1986, 2h 15m as Miranda

8.8 / 10
Comedy

Jessica, the second Mrs Saunders, arrives with her new husband John at his country estate. Very much left to her own devices she is unnerved by the power that Consuela, the sinister Spanish housekeeper,seems to wield, comparing her to John's first wife and forbidding her to enter a mysterious locked room.

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#20Hatfield House: A Royal Residence

Movie - 2024, 2h 15m as Self - Narrator (voice)

8.8 / 10
Documentary

A look at the history of the stately home in Hertfordshire, where the future Elizabeth I was sent to live from the age of three months by her tyrannical father Henry VIII. Insights from experts including Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and former royal butler Paul Burrell helps reveal the behind-the-scenes secrets of a house that's been a regular royal go-to for centuries.

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#21The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilization?

Movie - 2018, 2h 15m as Narrator

5.0 / 10
Documentary

From the beginning of the Earth to our present moment, this film encounters extraordinary projects and people from four continents, economist Kate Raworth, philosopher Roger Scruton and Gaian ecologist Stephan Harding.

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#22Glamis Castle: A Royal Residence

Movie - 2024, 2h 15m as Self - Narrator (voice)

8.8 / 10
Documentary

The childhood home of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and playground for her daughter Elizabeth, the future queen, is one of the oldest royal residences in Britain. This pink-painted fairy-tale fortress has been the family home to the Lyons, one of Britain's oldest aristocratic families. Experts including Paul Burrell and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen reveal the secrets of a house that helped shape the world views and personal convictions of Elizabeth II and her mother.

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