Sue Holderness

Susan Joan Holderness (born 28 May 1949) is an English actress on both stage and screen having had appearances in Bless This House (1974), The New Avengers (1977), Canned Laughter (1979), The Sandbaggers (1980), The Cleopatras and It Takes a Worried Man (1983), The Brief and Minder (1984), Doctors (2004-2014), Still Open All Hours (2018–2019) EastEnders and The Madame Blanc Mysteries (2021). However, she is best known for her role as Marlene Boyce in Only Fools and Horses from 1985 to 2003, and its spin-off The Green Green Grass from 2005 to 2009. Career Holderness was born on 28 May 1949, in Hampstead, London. After taking her A-levels, she trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She began her acting career with the Manchester 69 Theatre Company in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peer Gynt and as Desdemona in Catch My Soul (Jack Good's rock-musical version of Othello). She has worked consistently in theatre, radio, film and television. West End plays include The Female Odd Couple, Why Not Stay for Breakfast, The Male of the Species and the highly acclaimed one-woman play Our Kid (based on Myra Hindley). Holderness regularly appeared in The Vagina Monologues and she was in the cast of the touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners. She has toured the country in numerous plays and worked in several repertory companies. Much of her career has been spent doing Alan Ayckbourn plays, three of which (Relatively Speaking, Time and Time Again, and How the Other Half Loves) she toured with John Challis, who played Boycie to her long-suffering Marlene in Only Fools And Horses. She played a main role in the Only fools and horses Spin-off series The Green, Green Grass, which ran from 2005 – 2009, including four series and three Christmas Specials.