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Phyllis Logan (born 11 January 1956) is a Scottish actress, widely known for her roles as Lady Jane Felsham in Lovejoy (1986–1993) and Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey (2010–2015). She won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the 1983 film Another Time, Another Place and was nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the same film. Her other film appearances include Secrets & Lies (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), Downton Abbey (2019) and Misbehaviour (2020).
Logan was educated at Johnstone High School. She studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and graduated with the James Bridie gold medal in 1977.
Before her success in Downton Abbey, in which she played the housekeeper Mrs Hughes, Logan was widely known for the role of Lady Jane Felsham, co-starring with Ian McShane, for eight years in nearly fifty episodes of Lovejoy, a comedy-drama for television.
Her character in Downton Abbey, Mrs Hughes, was voted the best Downton Abbey character of all time in a poll conducted by RadioTimes.com (the official website of Radio Times).
She also starred in the 1996 Mike Leigh film Secrets & Lies alongside Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn. Logan provided the broadcast voice of Ingsoc in a film version of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) and the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) in the animated film Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992). She was in the radio series Coming Alive and Baggage. She played Inspector Frost's love interest and eventual wife in If Dogs Run Free, the last story in the A Touch of Frost series.
Logan played Maggie Smart in The Good Karma Hospital (7 episodes, 2017–2018) on the ITV drama series which was later made available on Acorn TV. She also starred in a main role as Linda Hutchinson in the ITV drama series Girlfriends which was created and directed by Kay Mellor, alongside Miranda Richardson and Zoë Wanamaker.
She played Andinio in "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos", the tenth episode in the eleventh series of Doctor Who.
She starred as Maggie Lynch in the second series of the television series Guilt, which was shown on both BBC Two and BBC Scotland in 2021. At the British Academy Scotland Awards 2022, Logan won the award for Best Actress – Television for the role. She also starred in the third and final series which was released in April 2023, premiering on BBC Scotland on 25 April 2023.
In 2024, she played Grace Bain in series 8 of Shetland.
In 2025, she played the leading role Cora Felton aka The Puzzle Lady in the first season of Murder Most Puzzling, a television mini-series adaption of the best-selling murder mystery books by American author Parnell Hall. Logan described the series, written by Dominique Moloney, as "a bit like Murder She Wrote meets Miss Marple on steroids". Logan’s real-life husband, Kevin McNally, plays her character’s love-interest.
She supports several charities that promote the welfare of dementia patients, and she is also a supporter of SSPCA.
| 1983 | Another Time, Another Place | Janie | BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress Rimini Film Festival Award for Best Actress Taormina Film Fest Golden Mask Award Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated – David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress |
| Every Picture Tells a Story | Agnes Scott | ||
| 1984 | Alison | ||
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | Telescreen Announcer | Voice | |
| 1985 | Elizabeth Rock | ||
| 1987 | Claudia Procula | ||
| Janet Graham | |||
| 1989 | Mary Welsh | ||
| Mary Penrys Jones | |||
| 1990 | Camilla Staffa | ||
| 1992 | Freddie as F.R.O.7. | Nessie (voice) | |
| Soft Top Hard Shoulder | Karla | ||
| 1993 | Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life | Frau Brunofsky | Short film |
| 1996 | Secrets & Lies | Monica Purley | |
| 1997 | Shooting Fish | Mrs. Ross | |
| 2003 | Crust | Bill's Girlfriend | |
| 2009 | Nativity! | Mrs. Lore | |
| 2012 | Day of the Flowers | Brenda | |
| 2019 | Downton Abbey | Elsie Hughes-Carson | |
| 2020 | Misbehaviour | Evelyn Alexander | |
| 2021 | The Last Bus | Mary | |
| Last Train to Christmas | Auntie Vi | ||
| 2022 | Elsie Hughes-Carson | ||
| Mrs. Cleaver | |||
| 2023 | Surprised by Oxford | Provost Regina Knight | |
| 2024 | No Way Up | Mardy 'Nana' | |
| 2025 | Elsie Hughes-Carson |
| 1980 | Shoestring | Linda | Episode: "Mocking Bird" |
| Janie (age 16) | TV film | ||
| 1981 | Beginnings | Nell | TV film |
| Play for Today | Nancy Park | Episode: "The Good Time Girls" | |
| 1982 | Scotch and Wry | Various | Episode: "Hogmanay 1982" |
| 1985 | Time and the Conways | Kay Conway | TV film |
| Off Peak | Janet | TV film | |
| 1986 | Screen Two | Anne | Episode: "The McGuffin" |
| 1986–1994 | Lovejoy | Lady Jane Felsham | Main role (series 1–5), guest (season 6) |
| 1987 | First Sight | Kathy | Episode: "Extras" |
| Bust | Sheila Walsh | TV series | |
| When Reason Sleeps: Out of Time | Helen Wilmot | TV film | |
| 1988 | Hannay | Alison Ross | Episode: "Act of Riot" |
| 1989 | Screen Two | Alison | Episode: "Sitting Targets" |
| Lee | Episode: "Defrosting the Fridge" | ||
| And a Nightingale Sang | Helen Stott | TV film | |
| Goldeneye | Ann Fleming | TV film | |
| 1991 | Screen One | Dora | Episode: "Happy Feet" |
| Play on One | Andrea | Episode: "And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon" | |
| Dr Ruth Kovacs | Episode: "Effie's Burning" | ||
| 1993 | Love and Reason | Lou Larson | TV miniseries |
| Silent Cries | Nancy Muir | TV film | |
| 1995 | Kavanagh QC | Samantha Fisher | Episode: "A Family Affair" |
| Mrs. Wilde | TV film | ||
| Chiller | Anna Spalinsky | Episode: "Here Comes the Mirror Man" | |
| 1996 | Pie in the Sky | Det. Supt. Chalmers | Episode: "Coddled Eggs" |
| Inspector Morse | Julia Stevens | Episode: "The Daughters of Cain" | |
| 1997 | Scene | Anna | Episode: "Skinny Marink" |
| Elizabeth Leaming | Episode: "Sacrifice" | ||
| 1998 | The Game | Betty McCallum | TV film |
| Helen Knox | TV miniseries | ||
| 1999 | Holby City | Muriel McKendrick | Main role (series 1) |
| Midsomer Murders | Kate Merrill | Episode: "Strangler's Wood" | |
| Rab C Nesbitt | Jenny Welthorpe | Episode: "Commons" | |
| All the King's Men | Mary Beck | TV film | |
| Heartbeat | Julia Kendall | Episode: "Stag at Bay" | |
| 2000 | Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) | Harriet Banks-Smith | Episode: "The Best Years of Your Death" |
| Hope and Glory | Annie Gilbert | Main role (series 3) | |
| 2001 | Anne Warwick | TV film | |
| 2002 | Dickens | Georgina Hogarth | Episode: "Terror to the End" |
| Fields of Gold | Rachel Greenlaw | TV film | |
| The Real Jane Austen | Mrs. Austen | TV film | |
| 2003 | Miriam Whitelaw | Episode: "Playing for the Ashes" | |
| Alibi | Linda Brentwood | TV film | |
| Agatha Christie's Poirot | Nurse Hopkins | Episode: "Sad Cypress" | |
| 2004 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Jenny Ettrick | Episode: "A Game of Soldiers" |
| Murder in Suburbia | Wendy | Episode: "Noisy Neighbours" | |
| Silent Witness | Helen Wharton | Episodes: "" | |
| 2005 | Beneath the Skin | DCI Grace Shilling | TV film |
| 2005, 2006 | Spooks | Diana Jewell | Episodes: "4.8", "5.10" |
| 2006 | Missing | Karen Foster | TV film |
| Sea of Souls | Elaine | Episode: "Sleeper" | |
| Heartbeat | Diane Bell | Episode: "Get Back" | |
| 2007 | Richard is My Boyfriend | Laura | TV film |
| Trial & Retribution | Anna Wildsmith | Episodes: " & 2" | |
| 2008 | Honest | Jenny | Episode: "1.4" |
| Taggart | Kathy Moffat | Episode: "Trust" | |
| New Tricks | Dr. Mathieson | Episode: "Mad Dogs" | |
| George Fawcett | Episode: "Pastures New" | ||
| 2010 | Maid in Britain | TV movie documentary | |
| Silent Witness | Jennifer Mears | Episodes: "" | |
| Heartbeat | Rose Brown | Episode: "The War of the Roses" | |
| Wallander | Inga Wallander | Episode: "The Fifth Woman" | |
| Christine Moorhead | Episodes: " & 2" | ||
| 2010, 2012 | Lip Service | Judy | Episodes: "1.4", "2.2" |
| 2010–2015 | Downton Abbey | Elsie May Carson (Mrs. Hughes) | Regular role |
| 2012 | Vera | Shirley | Episode: "A Certain Samaritan" |
| 2014 | Bones | Sandra Zins | Episode: "The Lost Love in the Foreign Land" |
| 2017–2018 | Maggie Smart | Main role (series 1), guest (series 2) | |
| 2018 | Girlfriends | Linda Hutchinson | Main role |
| Doctor Who | Andinio | Episode: "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos" | |
| 2019–2025 | Mrs. Bird | Voice | |
| 2020 | Our Queen at War | Narrator | TV movie documentary |
| Narrator | TV documentary series | ||
| 2021 | Intergalactic | Phoebe Skov-King | Episode: 1.5 |
| Ladybaby | Sheena Dunbar | ||
| Guilt | Maggie Lynch | Series 2 and 3 | |
| 2024 | Shetland | Grace Bain | Series 8 |
| 2025 | Miss Austen | Mrs. Cassandra Austen | Series 1 |
| The Bombing of Pan Am 103 | Moira Shearer | TV miniseries, 6 episodes | |
| Murder Most Puzzling | Cora Felton | Crime drama, 6 episodes |
| 1980 | The Case of David Anderson Q. C. | Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh | |
| Threads | Bernadette | Hampstead Theatre | |
| 1983 | The Communication Cord | Susan | Hampstead Theatre |
| 1993 | Marvin's Room | Lee Wakefield Lacker | Hampstead Theatre and Comedy Theatre, London |
| 1994 | Gaucho | Steph/Stephanie | Hampstead Theatre |
| 2002 | Richard III | Queen Elizabeth | Crucible Theatre, Sheffield |
| 2008 | 2000 Feet Away | Nan | Bush Theatre |
| 2016 | Present Laughter | Monica Reed | Richmond Theatre |
| 2018 | Switzerland | Patricia Highsmith | Ambassadors Theatre, London and Theatre Royal, Bath |
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