Desmond star Carmen Munroe will be made a Dame in 2025 (Image: BBC Studios)
Desmond’s star Carmen Munroe has been made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to drama in the 2025
Dame Carmen, 92, is best known for her iconic role as Shirley Ambrose, the caring wife of London barber Desmond Ambrose (Norman Beaton) in the 1980s Channel 4 sitcom.
The TV favourite was born in the heart of Guyana in 1932 before moving to Britain in 1951 to study optometry before she stepped into the acting industry.
It didn’t take long before she fell in love with the craft, making her stage debut on London’s West End at Wyndham’s Theatre in 1962.
She went on to present the ’s educational children’s show Play School before she moved onto a stint in Doctor Who in the 1960s.
The actress is set to be awarded for her services to drama (Image: Channel 4)
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The star swiftly accumulated a series of acting credits including a role on The Persuaders! during the 1970s alongside former Bond star Sir and Tony Curtis.
Carmen has also played sister Frances Washington in the 1970s soap opera General Hospital and appeared in the groundbreaking sitcom Mixed Blessings.
In Desmond’s, which originally aired for six series between 1989 and 1994, she was influential in one of the lead roles and credited the sitcom with putting black voices on screen an in production.
Dame Carmen went on to launch a black theatre company called Talawa in 1986 alongside Mona Hammond, Inigo Espegel Yvonne Brester to provide opportunities to diverse actors in response to marginalisation.
It has gone on to put on more than 50 award-winning touring productions throughout the UK. In 2007, Dame Carmen became an OBE in the 2007 Birthday Honours for her services to drama.
Recently, the beloved actor appeared in the CBBC children’s drama show The Dumping Ground, a spin-off to The Story of Tracy Beaker, and on Holby City as a therapist.
In 2023, she was one of 10 pioneering members of the Windrush generation who had their portraits commissioned by the King to mark 75 years since the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush on British shores.
Dame Carmen has also taken on theatre roles including in George Bernard Shaw’s The Apple Cart and Alun Owen’s There’ll Be Some Changes Made, as well as directing James Saunders’ play Alas, Poor Fred for the Umoja Theatre.
Her eldest sister Daphne Steele is credited as the “first black matron” in the NHS and was given the first official blue plaque outside London earlier this year.