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During the 1970s, this gifted performer appeared as a intelligent, funny, and youthfully attractive performer. She developed into a recognisable celebrity on either side of the ocean thanks to the smash hit English program the Upstairs Downstairs series, which was the period drama of its era.

She played Sarah, a bold but fragile servant with a shady background. Her character had a romance with the handsome driver Thomas, acted by Collins’s real-life husband, the actor John Alderton. This turned into a on-screen partnership that the public loved, continuing into spin-off series like Thomas and Sarah and No, Honestly.

The Peak of Excellence: The Shirley Valentine Film

Yet the highlight of her career came on the big screen as Shirley Valentine. This liberating, cheeky yet charming story opened the door for future favorites like the Calendar Girls film and the Mamma Mia series. It was a buoyant, comical, sunshine-y comedy with a superb role for a mature female lead, broaching the theme of feminine sensuality that was not governed by traditional male perspectives about youthful innocence.

Her portrayal of Shirley anticipated the emerging discussion about midlife changes and women who won’t resign themselves to being overlooked.

Originating on Stage to Screen

It started from Collins taking on the starring part of a lifetime in playwright Willy Russell's 1986 theater production: Shirley Valentine, the yearning and surprisingly passionate ordinary woman lead of an escapist comedy about adulthood.

She was hailed as the star of London theater and Broadway and was then victoriously cast in the highly successful film version. This largely followed the similar stage-to-screen journey of the performer Julie Walters in Russell’s 1980 theater piece, Educating Rita.

The Plot of The Film's Heroine

The film's protagonist is a down-to-earth Liverpool homemaker who is weary with daily routine in her middle age in a tedious, lacking creativity place with monotonous, dull people. So when she receives the chance at a complimentary vacation in the Mediterranean, she grabs it with eagerness and – to the amazement of the unexciting English traveler she’s accompanied by – continues once it’s over to encounter the genuine culture outside the resort area, which means a delightfully passionate fling with the mischievous native, the character Costas, acted with an striking moustache and accent by Tom Conti.

Bold, sharing the heroine is always speaking directly to viewers to tell us what she’s feeling. It earned huge chuckles in cinemas all over the UK when her love interest tells her that he appreciates her stretch marks and she remarks to the audience: “Aren’t men full of shit?”

Subsequent Roles

After Valentine, Pauline Collins continued to have a active work on the theater and on the small screen, including roles on Dr Who, but she was not as supported by the film industry where there seemed not to be a screenwriter in the caliber of Willy Russell who could give her a true main character.

She appeared in Roland Joffé’s decent Calcutta-set story, the movie City of Joy, in the year 1992 and starred as a British missionary and POW in Japan in filmmaker Bruce Beresford's the film Paradise Road in 1997. In filmmaker Rodrigo García's trans drama, the 2011 movie Albert Nobbs, Collins returned, in a sense, to the class-divided setting in which she played a below-stairs domestic worker.

Yet she realized herself often chosen in patronizing and syrupy older-age stories about the aged, which were not worthy of her, such as care-home dramas like Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War and the movie Quartet, as well as ropey located in France film the movie The Time of Their Lives with actress Joan Collins.

A Minor Role in Fun

Director Woody Allen offered her a real comedy role (although a brief appearance) in his the film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, in which she played the questionable fortune teller hinted at by the title.

However, in cinema, Shirley Valentine gave her a remarkable time to shine.