Kate Robbins

Kate Robbins (born in Margate, Kent) is an English actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she scored a No.2 hit on the UK Charts with the song "More Than In Love", She went on to become a prolific voice actress, most notably for nine years with the satirical show "Spitting Image." Robbins is a first-cousin once-removed of Paul McCartney and older sister of fellow actress Amy Robbins (her mother and McCartney were first cousins). She attended Wirral Grammar School for Girls in Bebington, Cheshire. Robbins wrote the first theme tune to "Surprise, Surprise" and provided almost all of the female voices on the television show "Spitting Image" in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The 1986 Granada Television sketch show "Kate & Ted's Show" featured Kate, her brother Ted Robbins, and her sisters Amy Robbins, Jane Robbins, and Emma Robbins. Granada TV then commissioned "The Kate Robbins Show' in 1987 She participated in the 1989 Children's Royal Variety Performance on BBC TV, singing her own comic songs at the piano, and featured in the original series of "Dead Ringers" on BBC Radio 4 in 2000. Robbins also provided the English-language dubbing for Europeans, featured on the Channel 4 series Eurotrash in 2006. In 2007, Bedfordshire University awarded her an Honorary Bachelor of Arts degree for her lifetime contribution to the Performing Arts. Robbins was amicably divorced from musician Keith Atack in 2008 after 19 years of marriage. Her three children are actor and comedian Emily Atack, born in 1989; Martha Atack, born in 1991; and George Atack, born in 1992. Robbins was one of the "Grumpy Old Women" for three UK tours in 2014, 2015, and 2016 with comedian Jenny Eclair and actress Susie Blake. She toured the UK in the 1980s musical "Club Tropicana" as Consuela in 2018. Robbins appeared in two episodes of the BBC Television comedy series "Dinnerladies" dinnerladies (1998), playing Babs, a friend of Petula Gordino, played by Julie Walters. Robbins later appeared with the sitcom's writer Victoria Wood in the BBC TV special Victoria Wood: With All the Trimmings (2000). She recently appeared in three episodes of season 3 of Netflix's "Afterlife" as fortune-telling author Penny Spencer-Wright.