Maxine Evans

Maxine Evans is a Welsh actress who has worked extensively in television and theatre roles. She is best known for playing Rhian in the Sky1 TV comedy drama series Stella.^[1] and is also well known for appearing in one episode of the spin off series of Doctor Who called Torchwood as her role of Helen Sherman in the episode "Countrycide" with former actor Owen Teale.

Early life and training

Maxine Evans was born 9 November 1966 in Wales. Maxine acted alongside Ruth Jones in the National Youth Theatre of Wales. Maxine went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where one of her classmates was a future 007. And Evans moved to London.

Career

In 2006 Maxine had a role in the spin-off of Doctor Who, called Torchwood, she appeared in one episode "Countrycide". Maxine played the part of Helen Sherman. Helen Sherman was a woman who lived in the Bracon Beacons with her husband Evan Sherman, portrayed by Owen Teale. Helen is a cannibal and is working alongside Evan and other villages to get those passing by ready for harvest.

Maxine plays the part of Rhian, who pushes a dog around in a pram and hasn’t had a shower for some time. She was at school with Stella and already has seven grandchildren, despite being only 42.

In an interview Maxine said:

You kind of go, I’m not even a mother and at 44 I’m being asked to play a grandmother. But I think I was more perturbed by the fact that my character doesn’t wash!

The girls in the make-up truck used to laugh at me as I would turn up wearing a bit of make-up so that I would feel better about myself before they made me look drab, which they do in a brilliant way.

The funny thing is you kind of get into it and say, go on, give me another hair on my top lip, or a bushier eyebrow. The first time I saw myself on a close-up I nearly died. I couldn’t believe how bad I looked. Now I just love it as the character is so far away from me. People who have known me for years have seen the show and haven’t recognised me.

Maxine, who now lives in London, has been praised for her role and looks set to be in a second series of the show but it has come at a price. She explained:

I was travelling on the train down to Swansea to direct a play called The Goat Street Runners at the Grand, which is running at the moment, and I had rushed to get the train, being really busy, and had no make-up on, my hair was unwashed and really messy, and when I stepped on somebody recognised me as the character. I was mortified.

Personal life

Maxine has no children of her own but has two Staffordshire bullterriers and talks about how she is over the moon of the role she has in Stella, who she plays a 42 year old, grandmother of seven: "I have two Staffordshire bullterriers that I love to pieces so I was overjoyed when I found out that the dog that I push around in a pram is a staff".

Maxine has her own production company, called Independent Pictures, which she set up with her Gorseinon-bred husband Neil Docking, and has worked on the writing side for soaps Nuts and Bolts, Crossroads and Coronation Street.

Film and television

References

External links

• Maxine Evans at the Internet Movie Database