Paula Wilcox Age, Career and Coronation Street Return
Born 13 December 1949 in Manchester. The Man About the House years, the two Coronation Street roles half a century apart, and the losses behind her quiet decade.
Paula Wilcox was born on 13 December 1949, which makes her 76 through most of 2026 and 77 from 13 December.
She has been working on British screens since 1969. The neatest illustration of that: she appeared in Coronation Street in 1969, and again — as a completely different character — from 2020 to 2023. Fifty-one years apart, on the same show.
Who is Paula Wilcox?
Paula Wilcox is an English actress of television, film and theatre, born in Manchester to Joseph and Mary Wilcox. She was educated at Hollies Convent Grammar School and joined the National Youth Theatre at seventeen — she was working professionally within two years of leaving.
To one generation she is Chrissy Plummer from Man About the House. To another she is Elaine Jones from Coronation Street. Both are true, and there are fifty years between them.
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Man About the House
Her breakthrough came first with The Lovers (Granada, 1970–71), a sitcom she led opposite Richard Beckinsale as Beryl Battersby.
Then came Man About the House (Thames, 1973–76), where she played Chrissy Plummer across 39 episodes and six series, plus a spin-off film in 1974. The premise — a man sharing a flat with two women — was mild enough now and genuinely provocative then; the show is generally credited with bringing sexual themes into mainstream British sitcom.
It made her famous, and it is still the credit most write-ups lead on. By volume of work, though, it is not her biggest role.
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The Coronation Street bookend
In 1969, aged nineteen, Wilcox appeared in five episodes of Coronation Street as Janice Langton. It was one of her earliest television jobs.
In 2020 she returned to the same programme as an entirely different character — Elaine Jones — and stayed until 2023, for 128 episodes.
That is more than three times as much Coronation Street as Man About the House, and it makes Elaine Jones the largest single role of her career. It also means she worked on the same continuing drama in two separate centuries, half a century apart, which is a rare thing even in British television.
Full television career
| Years | Production | Role | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Coronation Street | Janice Langton | 5 |
| 1969 | Hadleigh, The Wednesday Play, Z-Cars | various | — |
| 1970–71 | The Lovers | Beryl Battersby | 13 |
| 1973–76 | Man About the House | Chrissy Plummer | 39 |
| 1977–78 | Miss Jones and Son | Elizabeth Jones | 12 |
| 1991 | Fiddlers Three | Ros West | 14 |
| 1995–2001 | The Queen’s Nose | Audrey Parker | 24 |
| 2004–05 | The Smoking Room | Lillian | 17 |
| 2007–08 | Emmerdale | Hilary Potts | 71 |
| 2011–17 | Mount Pleasant | Pauline Johnson | 49 |
| 2014–16 | Boomers | Carol | 13 |
| 2016–18 | Upstart Crow | Mary Shakespeare | 21 |
| 2020–23 | Coronation Street | Elaine Jones | 128 |
| 2024 | Avoidance, The Cleaner | — | — |
| 2026 | The Fortune | Linda Blakefield | 4 |
The roles in between
Between the two famous ones sits a career most actors would take on its own.
The Queen’s Nose (1995–2001) is the one a whole generation of British children remember her from. She played Audrey Parker across 24 episodes of the CBBC fantasy series about a magic fifty-pence piece — a long run on a show that has stayed unusually fondly remembered.
Emmerdale (2007–08) gave her 71 episodes as Hilary Potts, making her one of the few actors to have had substantial runs in both of ITV’s biggest continuing dramas.
Mount Pleasant (2011–17) was her longest comedy-drama run at 49 episodes as Pauline Johnson. And in Upstart Crow (2016–18) she played Mary Shakespeare — William’s mother — opposite David Mitchell for 21 episodes across three series and the specials.
Add in The Smoking Room (2004–05) and Boomers (2014–16) and the pattern is clear: she has worked steadily in British comedy for over fifty years, in eras with almost nothing else in common.
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Film and theatre
On film she has appeared in The Lovers! (1973), The Higher Mortals (1993), The Stalker’s Apprentice (1998), Woody Allen’s Scoop (2006), Outlaw (2007), Great Expectations (2013) as Miss Havisham, and the short Dead Ed (2023).
The stage work is where the range shows. She has played Miss Havisham in Great Expectations at the Vaudeville, Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to the Cotton Dress Girl? (2008), and appeared in La Cage aux Folles, Canary, Dreams of Violence and What Shadows (2016–17), the Enoch Powell play.
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The 1980s, and why the credits thin out
Look at the table above and there is a gap: after Miss Jones and Son ends in 1978, her next major television series is Fiddlers Three in 1991. Thirteen years. Most profiles list it without comment.
Two deaths explain it.
Wilcox married the actor Derek Seaton in 1970. They had met when she was nineteen and married a year later. In 1979, after nine years of marriage, Seaton died of a brain haemorrhage. He was 35.
Months earlier, Richard Beckinsale — her co-star in The Lovers and a close friend — had died of a heart attack aged 31.
“The Eighties were strange because of all that loss. I was a little bit wobbly.”
Paula Wilcox
She turned to theatre and largely stepped back from television for a decade. On how the bereavement shaped her, she has said:
“Any tragedy, it becomes part of you. It becomes part of who you are… It makes you a different person. You grow, and you learn to cope.”
Paula Wilcox
Second marriage
In 1991 — the same year she returned to television — Wilcox married Nelson “Skip” Riddle, an American businessman and the son of Nelson Riddle, the arranger behind Frank Sinatra’s Capitol recordings and Nat King Cole’s biggest hits. They remain married.
She has no children.
What she is doing now
Still working. After leaving Coronation Street in 2023 she appeared in Avoidance and The Cleaner in 2024, and in 2026 she plays Linda Blakefield in The Fortune, a four-episode role.
Fifty-seven years after her first television job, she is still being cast.
For a British screen career at the other end of the age scale, see Millie Bobby Brown’s films and television. For another writer-turned-household-name of Wilcox’s generation, there is Sophie Kinsella.
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Frequently asked questions
How old is Paula Wilcox?
She was born on 13 December 1949. That makes her 76 for most of 2026, turning 77 on 13 December 2026.
Where is Paula Wilcox from?
Manchester. She was educated at Hollies Convent Grammar School and joined the National Youth Theatre at seventeen.
Who is Paula Wilcox married to?
Nelson “Skip” Riddle, an American businessman and son of the composer and arranger Nelson Riddle. They married in 1991. Her first husband, the actor Derek Seaton, died in 1979.
Does Paula Wilcox have children?
No children are recorded.
Was Paula Wilcox in Coronation Street twice?
Yes, as two different characters. Janice Langton in 1969 for five episodes, then Elaine Jones from 2020 to 2023 for 128 episodes — fifty-one years apart.
What is Paula Wilcox best known for?
Chrissy Plummer in Man About the House (1973–76) is the role that made her famous. By episode count, Elaine Jones in Coronation Street is her biggest.
Is Paula Wilcox still acting?
Yes. She appears in The Fortune in 2026 as Linda Blakefield.
What is Paula Wilcox’s net worth?
There is no reliable public figure. Wilcox has never disclosed her finances, and the numbers circulating on celebrity-net-worth sites are estimates generated from guesswork about episode counts, not from any published source.
What can be said factually is that she has worked continuously in British television, film and theatre since 1969, with long-running contracts on Coronation Street (128 episodes), Emmerdale (71) and Mount Pleasant (49). Beyond that, any figure you read is invented.
