Janet Dibley in Unforgotten
TV

Unforgotten returns to ITV with Nicola Walker and new case featuring Janet Dibley

Janet has had a brilliant career

Unforgotten – ITV’s hit crime drama – returns tonight with an all-new case, who plays suspect Jenny?

The show, which stars Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as two police officers investigating cold cases, introduces a new six-part story.

Along with the likes of Sheila Hancock, actress Janet also makes an appearance.

But who is Janet and what has she been in before?

Janet Dibley appears in Unforgotten
Who plays Jenny in Unforgotten? it’s soap actress Janet Dibley! (Credit: SplashNews.com)

Who is Janet Dibley and who does she play in Unforgotten?

Actress Janet, 62, plays Jenny in the ITV crime drama, who is somehow implicated in the new cold case – that of a dismembered body found in a scrapyard freezer that dates back to 1990.

However, before Unforgotten Janet has enjoyed a long and successful acting career, starring in some of British TV’s biggest shows.

Born in Doncaster in 1958, she first became a national favourite when she starred alongside Nicholas Lyndhurst in ITV sitcom, The Two Of Us.

Read more: Unforgotten series 4: Fans can’t wait as trailer released by ITV

Janet has also starred in dramas Band Of Gold, Fat Friends and The Chase, as well as BBC daytime soap, Doctors, from 2003 to 2012.

She also played three different characters in Casualty over the course of 16 years.

Janet Dibley in EastEnders as Lorna Cartwright
Janet in EastEnders as Lorna Cartwright (Credit: BBC)

Before Unforgotten who did Janet Dibley play in EastEnders?

Janet played Lorna Cartwright in EastEnders between 1997 and 2016.

Lorna was an alcoholic who met Phil Mitchell in AA meetings, and soon formed a sexual relationship with him.

Their relationship soon turned toxic when Phil tried to end the fling, but instead obsessed Lorna telephoned Phil’s then-wife Kathy Beale to introduce herself.

Despite her attempts to rekindle the affair with Phil, he didn’t want to know and in a desperate state, she tried to take her own life.

After Phil saved her, they went their separate ways, but 18 years later they met again at another addiction support group.

Janet appeared in Coronation Street
Janet’s character was involved in the Brian and Phil storyline (Credit: ITV)

Was Janet also in Coronation Street?

In 2018 Janet landed a role in the UK’s other big soap, Coronation Street.

For two years she played Melinda Calvert on the cobbles of Weatherfield.

Melinda was the headmistress at Bessie Street School, and became involved in the Brian Packham storyline.

Brian came to her to report deputy head Phil Gillespie for making his life a misery.

Janet Dibley appears in Unforgotten
Janet has two children and is married to Tyler (Credit: SplashNews.com)

Is Janet married?

Janet married actor Tyler Butterworth in 1998.

She said of their first meeting: “I played a single mum and Tyler played the guy next door, but off screen we didn’t like each other at all.

“But then we met again while working with Sir Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough in his play Absent Friends.

Read more: Unforgotten series four: ITV drama returns in February with guest stars including Sheila Hancock

“I was a single mum by then – in fact, we’d both left our previous relationships – and initially we were a bit disappointed to find ourselves in the same cast.

“But I realised there was more to this chap than I’d thought and by the end of the run we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.”

They have a son, Todd, together.

EastEnders - Lorna Cartwright's Return (2016)

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor