WHAT a year for Bolton’s Maxine Peake!

Apart from all the TV hit series like ‘Silk’, she gave a highly-acclaimed performance as the Prince of Denmark in “Hamlet” – and finishes the year with a striking film role in what is likely to be box-office smash “The Theory of Everything.”

In this, she plays the second wife of the famous English physicist Stephen Hawking. Elaine Mason. She came to nurse Hawking, who suffers from motor neurone disease, and the two fell in love.

As a result of this, she’s been interviewed everywhere about this role, among other things, and is as erudite as ever. In one TV interview with Andrew Marr that I watched she made some excellent points about care and the problems experienced by care workers.

When she came to officially open the revamped support centre for Bolton’s Fortalice, she proved remarkably compassionate and offered her support to the organisation.

She’s not simply an actress but one with a conscience - and not afraid to act on it, either.