Welcome to the Elizabeth Estensen Biography page.
FULL NAME: ELIZABETH ESTENSEN
CHARACTER/S IN T-BAG:
Tallulah Bag
Queen Tallulah Of The Nile (Turn On To T-Bag Ep5)
EPISODES APPEARED IN:
52 Episodes (5 Series & 2 Christmas Specials)
BIRTH DATE: 10th August 1949
BIRTH PLACE: Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, UK
STAR SIGN: Leo
Before Elizabeth’s TV debut she appeared in numerous stage plays including When The Reds (1973) and the Beatles inspired John, Paul, George, Ringo … & Bert in 1974.
Elizabeth Estensen started her television acting career in The Liver Birds in 1975 at the age of 25 as Carol Boswell, replacing Beryl (played by Polly James) as Sandra's (Nerys Hughes) new flatmate. Elizabeth appeared in 5 series of the Liver Birds (series 5-9) to it's end (before a resurrection in 1996 for series 10 without Elizabeth).
Aside from The Liver Birds Elizabeth had a great deal of roles such as Children and Our Day Out proving her worth as a great actress.
Before T-Bag Elizabeth Estensen appeared as the dotty Social Worker Wendy Wooley in another children’s TV programme of the 1980’s, Danger Marmalade at Work (the following series of Educating Marmalade) in 1984.
As the first and original T-Bag, Elizabeth Estensen’s Tallulah Bag is often people’s favourite T-Bag. Vote For Your Favourite T-Bag to find out! There is no denying she played Tallulah Bag extremely well displaying Tallulah's many characteristics-vain, crazy, idiotic, funny, witty, pompous, subtle, grand, vulnerable, sarcastic, scary, sophisticated, bad-tempered, greedy, mad, etc
After Elizabeth decided to leave the T-Bag series in 1989 the following series needed a new T-Bag which was filled by the cult actress Georgina Hale as Tallulah’s sister Tabatha Bag. Without Elizabeth the series lost many viewers which ultimately led to its end in 1992.
Elizabeth also appeared in a number of other Children’s TV programmes after T-Bag such as Mike & Angelo (ITV), also written by Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro, and Happy Families (as Mrs Clara Creep the Crook‘s Wife, Once a bungling baddy always a bungling baddy, she was also many other characters). Showing that she had not left children’s television programmes for good Elizabeth made an appearance in the children’s sci-fi series The Delta Wave in 1995.
Elizabeth Estensen went back to her roots of her acting career and made several appearances on the stage such as Don Juan as Charlotte (7 Apr 1981); Cavalcade as Ellen Bridges (1 May-29 June 1985); The School For Scandal as Mrs Candour (17 Apr-29 Jun 1996) (See image); Cardiff East (in 1997) and Hushabye Mountain as Beryl (3 Feb-15 May 1999).
As well as Elizabeth’s many stage and major screen roles she has made many minor appearances in highly acclaimed TV series such as Casualty, Cracker, A Touch of Frost and The Upper Hand (although her scene was not with Kellie Bright which would have been funny).
Elizabeth was not only prepared to take roles in TV Series and children’s TV as she proved in her role of Mrs Coggan in the TV adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd.
Elizabeth had many minor roles since T-Bag (see TV appearances below) but in recent years Elizabeth has been starring in two high profile ITV soaps, firstly Coronation Street in 1996 and then in 1997 to 1998 as Pam Middleton and secondly in Emmerdale (previously Emmerdale Farm) since 1999 as the Pub Land Lady Diane Blackstock.
In both 2001 and 2002 Elizabeth was nominated for the Best Actress award at The British Soap Awards for her performance in Emmerdale but failed to make the shortlist of four nominees at the award ceremony.
Also in 2002 (11th July) the Queen visited the set of Emmerdale (as part of her Golden Jubilee Tour) to see the village Post Office explode (which was sceened later in 2002). See the image right.
After Diane’s spell in a jail cell (9th July 2003) her character, when offered a brandy, replied with the apt ‘I’d rather have a nice cup of tea’!
Elizabeth Estensen is currently starring in Emmerdale (ITV) as Diane Sugden (before being married to Jack Sugden she was Diane Blackstock). She casts her evil spell to make people buy more drinks in The Woolpack (the pub) and one day she plans to take over the village! (I might have made that last bit up!)
Elizabeth Estensen appeared on the CiTV Birthday Bash programme to talk about T-Bag (shown 3rd January 2003, CiTV’s 20th Birthday!)
EXCLUSIVE ELIZABETH ESTENSEN IN EMMERDALE AUTOGRAPH
There is a board dedicated to Elizabeth Estensen on The T-Bag Forum!
The information on this page is from these following resources:
General Details:
The T-Room A T-Bag Website.
Elizabeth Estensen (The Internet Movie Database)
Elizabeth Estensen (TV.com)
Specific Programme Details:
Cardiff East by Peter Gill (1997) One image is from here, many thanks for the image.
Corrie.net Elizabeth Estensen Profile image and dates from here.
emmerdale.org Diane Blackstock Profile
and from my knowledge.
If you have any images of Elizabeth Estensen or any further information on appearances (if you can fill in the ? details below) etc or if you would like to remove these images here (if they are yours) please e-mail me to tell me.
| ELIZABETH ESTENSEN TV & FILM APPEARANCES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programme | As | Date Aired (UK) | Type | Episode/Series | More Details |
| 1970's | |||||
| 1975 | |||||
| The Liver Birds | Carol Boswell | 1975-1979 | TV Series | Series 5-9 | ITV |
| 1976 | |||||
| Children | Nurse | 1976 | ? | ? | ? |
| Within These Walls | Lorna Rogers | 2.10.1976 | K Block (#4.5) | Minor Role | |
| Our Day Out | Susan | ?.12.1976 | TV Film | ? | repeated in 1977 as a Play For Today & 1979 |
| 1980's | |||||
| 1984 | |||||
| Danger – Marmalade At Work! | Wendy Wooley (Social Worker) | 20.02.1984 - ? | Kids TV Series | Series 4 | Sequel series of Educating Marmalade (1981-83) |
| 1985 | |||||
| Wonders In Letterland | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 4.4.1985-6.6.1985 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| 1986 | |||||
| T-Bag Strikes Again | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 27.8.1986-29.10.1986 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| Children's ITV | T-Bag (Tallulah) As a presenter | 1986-23.1.1987 (Date not confirmed) | CiTV Broadcast | ? | CiTV with John Hasler (as T-Shirt) |
| 1987 | |||||
| T-Bag Bounces Back | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 23.1.1987-27.3.1987 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| The Ladies | ? | 1987 | TV | ? | ? |
| 1988 | |||||
| Turn On To T-Bag | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 5.1.1988-8.3.1988 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| T-Bag’s Christmas Cracker | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 27.12.1988 | Kids TV Special | All | CiTV |
| 1989 | |||||
| T-Bag And The Revenge Of The T-Set | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 3.1.1989-7.3.1989 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| T-Bag’s Christmas Carol | T-Bag (Tallulah) | 26.12.1989 | Kids TV Special | All | CiTV |
| Mike & Angelo | Mrs Daphne Fawkes-Bentley | 1989-? | Kids TV Series | Various (Series ?-11) | CiTV |
| Happy Families | Mrs Clara Creep, Mrs Tick The Teacher, & Miss Trump | 1989-1990 | Kids TV Series | Mr Creep The Crook; Master Money The Millionaire; Mr Tick The Teacher and Mr Biff The Boxer | CiTV |
| Life Without George | Amanda | 23.3.1989-11.5.1989 | TV Series | Series 3 | ? |
| 1990's | |||||
| 1993 | |||||
| Casualty | ? | 6.2.1993 | TV | ’Family Matters’ (#7.21) | Minor Role, BBC |
| The Upper Hand | Patsy | 16.9.1993 | TV | ’Misery’ (#5.2) | Minor Role |
| 1995 | |||||
| A Touch Of Frost | Susan Mackintosh | 8.1.1995 | TV | Appropriate Adults (#3.1) | Minor Role |
| Pie In The Sky | Evelyn Wilkes | 12.3.1995 | TV | ’The Mystery Of Pike’ (#2.9) | Minor Role |
| Cracker | Rennie Wise | 20.11.1995 | TV | ’True Romance’ (#3.3) | Minor Role |
| 1996 | |||||
| Delta Wave | Miss Gower | 27.2.1996-6.3.1996 | Kids TV Series | Ep5 Something Fishy (Part 1 & 2) | ITV |
| Coronation Street | Pam Middleton | 15.3.1996 & 8.9.1997-25.9.1998 | TV Soap | Varies | ITV |
| 1997 | |||||
| Last Of The Summer Wine | Educational Advisor | 18.05.1997 | TV Series | How to Create a Monster (#18.5) | Minor Role |
| 1998 | |||||
| Far From The Madding Crowd | Mrs Coggan | 06.07.1998 (UK) 10.05.1998 (USA) | TV | Part | ? |
| 1999 | |||||
| Emmerdale | Diane Blackstock | 1999-Ongoing | TV Soap | Varies | ITV |
| 2000's | |||||
| 2001 | |||||
| In A Land Of Plenty | Rachel | 10.01.2001 | TV 10 Part Drama | Major Role | BBC2 |
| 2002 | |||||
| Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway | Herself | 1.3.2002 | TV | (#2.8) | ITV |
| Lily Savage's Blankety Blank | As Herself | 27.7.2002 | TV Quiz | 1 show | ITV |
| 2003 | |||||
| CiTV Birthday Bash | Herself | 03.01.2003 | Kids TV | As Guest | CiTV 20th Birthday Bash |
| GMTV | As Herself | 9.7.2003 | Morning TV Show | 1 Show | ITV, Talk about Emmerdale |
| 2004 | |||||
| GMTV | As Herself | 19.8.2004 | Morning TV Show | 1 Show | Talk about Emmerdale |
| The Good Soap Guide | As Herself | 22.8.2004 | TV Show | 1 Show | Talk about Emmerdale (Mention of T-Bag!) |
| 2005 | |||||
| Emmerdale: The Sugden Family Album | As Herself | 6.6.2005 | TV Show | ITV | |
| This Morning | As Herself | 6.9.2005 | Morning TV Show | 1 Show | ITV, Talk about Jack and Diane in Emmerdale for Inside Soap Awards |
| 2006 | |||||
| This Morning | As Herself | 18.1.2006 | Morning TV Show | 1 Show | Soap Icons section |
| Unknown Dates | |||||
| Elizabeth Alone | ? | ? | TV | ? | ? |
| Only You | ? | ? | TV | ? | ? |
| WoolWorths Mother’s Day Commercial | ? | ? | TV Commercial | ? | ? |
