All you need to know about Sarah Lancashire's famous father

Sarah Lancashire's performance as Sergeant Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley was one of the best TV performances we've seen, so here at HELLO! we were overjoyed when the actress received high praise at the National Television Awards this week.

The stage and screen actor picked up an award in the Drama Performance category and the Special Recognition Award and was overcome with emotion when she took to the stage to give her speeches.

Although Sarah has been rightly praised recently following her final turn as the tough but lovable detective this year, she was already a household name prior to starring in Happy Valley.

What's more, it's perhaps unsurprising that the star ended up in a career in the arts after her father's very successful career in television. Here's all you need to know about Sarah Lancashire's father…

Sarah's father was Geoffrey Lancashire who worked as a television scriptwriter. The writer began his career as a journalist for the Oldham Evening Chronicle before turning his hand to scriptwriting.

After joining Granada Television as a continuity scriptwriter back in 1956, he would then go on to write over 170 episodes of Coronation Street – a show which would later launch the career of his daughter Sarah.

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© Photo: Getty Images

But it wasn't just Corrie that Geoffrey worked on, the writer penned scripts for other popular shows such as The Cuckoo Waltz, Foxy Lady and All Creatures Great and Small. In 2004, Sarah's father sadly passed away aged 71 after suffering a series of strokes in later life. Elsewhere in Sarah's family, she has three brothers, one elder, one younger and a twin.

Sarah, who portrayed Raquel Watts in Corrie, met her husband, Peter Salmon, through the soap when he was working for Grenada Studios. The pair developed a romantic relationship and later got engaged in 2001. Later that year, they married in a small ceremony in Nottinghamshire.

© Jeff Spicer

Prior to meeting her husband Peter, Sarah was first married to music lecturer Gary Hargreaves. They welcomed two sons, Thomas in 1987, and Matthew in 1988, before separating in 1995 and divorcing soon after.

Sarah also shares a son, Joseph, born in 2003, with her current husband Peter. She is a step-mum to Peter's three sons from his previous marriage to Penny Watt.

© David M. Benett

Meanwhile, Sarah gave her family a mention while picking up her Special Recognition award at Tuesday evening's NTAs. "There are also enablers who stand very quietly in the wings without expectation or due credit," she began, adding: "And they are my family, my husband, my children, my friends, my agent, Nick, thank you. And of course, a very vital component in all this is you, the audience."

Speaking of her admiration for Happy Valley creator, Sally Wainwright, Sarah continued: "I have to say some things about Sally Wainwright because she is Happy Valley, she is what makes it, her writing is so extraordinary, her characters are extraordinary and anyone who is in receipt of those words is the luckiest actor in the world, in truth."

© Ben Blackall/BBC Studios

Sarah continued and made sure to give a shoutout to her co-stars on the programme. "To James Norton, to Siobhan Finneran who has been my partner in crime for three years and she is an extraordinary actress."