Maxine Peake / The Unknown Path

Maxine Peake is widely regarded as one of the finest actors of her generation, from her early roles in Shameless and Dinnerladies to the more complex parts she has subsequently chosen, including Hamlet, Myra Hindley, and Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days. On a rainy spring morning, she takes us to Rivington Pike, near to her childhood home in Lancashire, to discuss the path that carried her from local youth theatre to revered performer and her decision to return to live in the North West. This episode is part of our second podcast series, The Unknown Path, following the writer and broadcaster Laura Barton as she journeys across the country to meet six authors, actors and naturalists. Taken to places from their past and present, we learn about the various, and often unexpected, routes their lives have taken.