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My first recollection of seeing Maggie O’Neill was in the 1997 BBC Drama “The Fix”. It told the story of the British betting scandal of 1964, following which a number of British professional footballers were jailed and banned from football for life for conspiring to fix the results of matches. Prominent among those gaoled and banned were the Sheffield Wednesday F.C. stars Peter Swan, Tony Kay and David Layne. O’Neill played the part of Marina kay, Tony’s wife.

She’d already been active in film and tv for just over a decade by then and in the ensuing years, has accumulated a considerable body of work including guest slots in “Peak Practice”, “Call the Midwife”, Father Brown”, “Inspector Morse”, “Midsomer Murders”. “The Royal”, “New Tricks” and “Inspector George Gently”.

Equally adapt at both sympathetic and disagreeable characterisations, she turned in a tour-de-force performance in “East Enders” playing Suzy Branning for six months in 2008. Whatever my opinion of this long running BBC series (and it would require expletives that are still to be invented to explain it) it was reassuring to read that she didn’t get along with the cast.

Maggie lives a tranquil existence and keeps many facts to herself. The modest actress said in a 2012 interview that she had a long-term lover, “David, a cinematographer,” with whom she was unmarried.

She keeps pretty much to herself, whilst admitting that she has never felt any great urge to get married. ” I want to be devoted to my spouse, “ she stated in a 2012 interview “but I don’t want to have a substantial religious ceremony or wear a ring on my finger.”

Now 61, she’s unlikely to change her views at this late stage, Whilst childless, she does come from a large family comprised of approximately 60 nieces and nephews. As to the present state of her private life, it is frankly none of lour business.