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Rumor has it that Sheila Hancock is about to be made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year Honour list – and not a moment too soon, quite frankly. The prolific actress will shortly be seen in season two of A Discovery of Witches, which begins Saturday, January 9 on Sundance Now and Shudder , so we've decided to make her our very deserving British Icon of the Week. Here's a reminder of some of her many career highlights.

1. She's forged a long and varied stage career.

Hancock made her West End debut in 1958 and her Broadway debut seven years later with a Tony-nominated performance in Entertaining Mr Sloane. In 1978, she portrayed Miss Hannigan in the original West End production of Annie, earning the first of her five Laurence Olivier Awards nominations. She won for her performance as Fraulein Schneider in a 2007 revival of Cabaret.

She also starred in the first London production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 1980 and the original West End production of Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act musical in 2009. More recently, she starred as cult icon "Big Edie" in the 2016 London production of Grey Gardens.

2. She's also worked prolifically on TV.

In the '60s, she starred opposite the late Dame Barbara Windsor in classic British sitcom The Rag Trade. Since then, she's appeared in everything from the BBC's Bleak House adaptation to long-running soap opera EastEnders, and in ill-fated British Golden Girls remake Brighton Belles to the BAFTA-nominated thriller The Russian Bride.

She even guested in an episode of The Catherine Tate Show as the sister of Tate's foul-mouthed Nan character. The sketch is a bit salty, as you'd expect, but you can check it out here.

3. She guest-starred in Doctor Who.

Hancock appeared in the 1988 serial "The Happiness Patrol" as Helen A, the despotic governor of a colony called Terra Alpha where misery and depression are forbidden by law. Hancock's character was modeled satirically on then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a highly controversial figure at the time.

Hancock's full-throttle performance is revered by Doctor Who fans and according to the Radio Times, she told Doctor Who magazine in 2001 that she hated Thatcher "with a deep and venomous passion."

4. She's an accomplished writer.

In 2004, she published The Two of Us, a memoir recounting her 29-year marriage to Inspector Morse actor John Thaw, who had died two years earlier. She followed it up with 2008's Just Me, a moving account of her grief and struggle to adjust to life as a widow.

"People often write to me or talk to me about being lonely, and I say you don’t have to be," she said at a 2015 book event attended by The Independent. “I think when you’re lonely you should take a risk. If you go into a restaurant and you’re on your own, and you seen somebody else on their own, say hello. If they reject you, so what? Rejection’s alright, you can live with that."

5. She can carry a monologue.

Earlier this year she filmed "Housebound," a Coronavirus-themed monologue produced by the #ForTheLoveOfArts initiative, which supports entertainment industry professionals affected by the pandemic.

6. She doesn't worry about sharing her political beliefs – and has described Brexit as "suicidal and stupid."

Asked by Saga magazine earlier this year if she ever contemplated a career in politics, she replied: "I wouldn’t be able to toe any party line. I’d piss too many people off. What makes me angry is that when I do or say something controversial, the media tells me to shut up: ‘You silly actress. What do you know?’ Acting is only my job. First and foremost, I am an 87-year-old woman and I have experienced a lot in my lifetime. War, unemployment, debt, bereavement, alcoholism, austerity. I have every right to my opinions."

7. She climbed a mountain for her 2017 movie Edie.

Quite literally – as Hancock portrayed a bitter octogenarian who finds a new lease on life after scaling the 2,398' Mount Suilven in Scotland. The movie's director Simon Hunter told Walkhighlands: "By and large... Sheila Hancock achieved exactly what you see in the finished movie. It was utterly extraordinary to watch. How many actresses would do that at 83, and after two weeks of filming six days a week in rain and wind, acting on bikes and in boats?"

8. She's close friends with former The Great British Baking Show host Sandi Toksvig.

In 2014, when Toksvig and her partner Debbie renewed their wedding vows at a public ceremony to celebrate the introduction of equal marriage in the U.K., Hancock was on hand to read Maya Angelou's poem "Touched By an Angel."

9. She’s also an occasional TV presenter.

In 2010, she presented Suffragette City, a documentary about the Suffragette movement which campaigned successfully to secure British women the right to vote. She’s also toured the U.K.’s man-made waterways for Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys series.

10. She has no plans to retire anytime soon.

"Unfortunately, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to start work again because, like a lot of over-70s, I’m classed as ‘vulnerable,'" she told Saga magazine in June. "It’s a bit silly, really. Risk is part of life. OK, I have arthritis, but I’m fit as a flea. For the film Edie I played a woman who decides to grab hold of life after her controlling husband dies, and I actually climbed Mount Suilven in the Scottish Highlands. If you let me out, I can work and that means I can pay tax. I can contribute to society."

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