Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson, best friends since they were ten, were inseparable growing up.
At a performing arts school in north London in the 1970s, both girls dreamed of leaving their working-class roots behind and becoming stars.
And they achieved that dream when they were cast in 1989 in the hit comedy series Birds Of A Feather, the perfect choice to play bickering sisters whose husbands were in prison for armed robbery.
With Pauline playing Sharon Theodopolopodous and Linda playing Tracey Stubbs, they soon become one of the country’s most beloved stunt doubles.
However, behind the scenes there were fierce disputes between the couple dating back to 1997. Things came to a head with huge consequences in 2019, when Pauline refused to reprise her role for a Christmas special planned for 2020, insisting Instead she wanted to focus on her own acting school, the Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
The women’s friends feared their relationship was “irreparable” and the chances of them speaking again were slim.
Pauline Quirke with co-stars Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph in 1989 in the hit comedy series Birds Of A Feather.
But it can now be revealed that Linda, 66, and Pauline, 65, have resolved their differences amid a difficult three years for Pauline. In the early hours of yesterday morning, her husband and agent Steve Sheen issued a heartbreaking statement: “It is with great regret that I announce my wife Pauline’s decision to step away from all of her professional and business duties due to her diagnosis of dementia in 2021. .’
That he suffered from this degenerative disease had not been made public at the time of his diagnosis. The statement, sent through a public relations firm at 1 a.m., also paid tribute to his achievements.
‘Pauline has been an inspiration through her work in the film and television industry. Her charitable endeavor as founder of the successful Pauline Quirke Performing Arts Academy (PQA). His talent, dedication and vision have touched countless lives and will continue to do so.’
She opened the acting school of the same name with her husband in 2007. Sheen added that Pauline now “just wants to spend time with her family, her children and her grandson” (she has a daughter, Emily, 40, from her first marriage, and a son, Charlie, 30, with Sheen) and listed his many accomplishments.
‘It was important to Steve to pay a proper tribute. “He’s very, very proud of her,” a source said. “Pauline not only appeared in Birds Of A Feather, she’s done a lot of things.”
The announcement sparked an outpouring of affection, including from TV presenter Lorraine Kelly. Speaking on her show yesterday morning, Lorraine sent her “love” to Pauline, praised her achievements and applauded the “good” she has done to raise awareness of dementia.
In addition to Birds Of A Feather, her starring performance in the 1996 psychological thriller The Sculptress, as a woman convicted of the murder of her mother and sister, earned her a Bafta nomination.

Pauline with her husband and agent Steve Sheen, who executive produced Birds Of A Feather in its early days.

Pauline played Sharon Theodopolopodous and Linda played Tracey Stubbs on the show.
Meanwhile, fans of ITV’s whodunnit drama Broadchurch will recognize her role as murder suspect Susan Wright.
But it is inevitably for her role alongside Linda that she is best known and loved.
And today the details of the reconciliation of childhood friends can be revealed in full.
The two actresses, along with Lesley Joseph, who played the sisters’ neighbor and had remained close to Linda, met for lunch in 2022 and shared a photo of themselves on social media in an attempt to dispel rumors of a dispute. .
The following year, Linda admitted on an episode of the ITV talk show Loose Women that she had become “envious” of Pauline when she started getting acting roles in more serious dramas. And there were claims that Pauline could be “demanding” and “difficult” on the set of the show.
I was told it took some time for relationships to thaw. “Pauline and Linda had a really tempestuous relationship at times,” recalls a former colleague. ‘There were fights in the bathrooms and disagreements over contracts, but now things are much better.
But, the colleague adds, the depth of their ties was never in doubt: “Very few people know Pauline as well as Linda, they have literally known each other for 55 years.”
‘I’m sure that at a time like this having your childhood best friend close will be very comforting. They started out together and share a very rare bond.
In fact, both women have spoken affectionately of each other in the past and been each other’s support as they navigated the entertainment industry as young people, with Pauline first finding fame on a sketch show called Pauline’s Quirkes in 1976. .
“We went to the same elementary school,” Linda said shortly before the couple separated. “We were known as the real kids, or the cockney kids on the street.”
While Steve made his devastating announcement yesterday, Linda was on a Caribbean cruise near the island of Grenada. It is understood she did not know the statement was going to be published.
The Loose Women star posted a photo of herself with a friend on Monday and wrote: “Having the time of our lives!”
Pauline’s sad news comes two years after she received her MBE from Prince William, in recognition of her services as an actress. It was his last public appearance.
Her last performance as Sharon came in 2017, 28 years after she, Linda and Lesley were catapulted to fame with Birds Of A Feather, which attracted 18 million viewers on BBC1.
The consequences of the couple marked the end of the character of Pauline, whose absence in the 2020 Christmas special was explained because Sharon went on a cruise and married a Costa Rican heartthrob.
In an attempt to secure the show’s future, a new character named Jordan, dubbed a “mini-me” of Sharon, was introduced.
Pauline’s real-life son Charlie also appeared on the show as her nephew Travis Stubbs, his sister’s youngest son; joining the tenth of the show’s 12 series. Meanwhile, her husband Steve was an executive producer in the show’s early days.
“Birds of Feather had a real family feel,” says a source close to the timeless comedy. “Now, at a time when Pauline needs him most, he will be there to show her enormous love.”