Holderness was born on 28 May 1949, in
Hampstead,
London. After taking her
A-levels, she trained at the
Central School of Speech and Drama. She began her acting career with the
Manchester 69 Theatre Company in ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream, and she was in the cast of the touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners. She has toured the country in numerous plays and worked in several repertory companies. Much of her career has been spent performing in Alan Ayckbourn plays, three of which (Relatively Speaking
, Time and Time Again
, and How the Other Half Loves) She played Celia in the 2012 tour (Jan – May) and went back to playing Annie in the Autumn 2012 tour (Sep – December). as Laura Doolan, a wife of serial bigamist "Confident"
Clive Cosgrove in the Minder episode "A Number of Old Wives Tales" (1984); episodes of The New Avengers'', She played
Rowan Atkinson's love interest, Lorraine, in
Canned Laughter, and did numerous impersonations in two series of
End of Part One. She played Maggie in
Dear John, by
John Sullivan, Joan Forrester (Oscar Blaketon's former wife) in
Heartbeat for YTV, Joan Travis in
Revelations, and Rachel's mother in
Cold Feet, Films include ''
That'll Be the Day (1973) and It Could Happen to You
(aka Intimate Teenage Secrets
) (1976). She also appeared in the low budget feature Meat Draw
and Out of Sight
for Granada. including All You Need for Christmas'' at
Fareham, Hampshire in 2009. In 2014, Holderness appeared in the
BBC One medical drama
Casualty as Alice Sweeney. In 2018-2019 she appeared as Mrs Rossi in series five and six of the sitcom
Still Open All Hours. Currently, she stars as Judith Lloyd-James in the Madame Blanc Mysteries. ==Personal life==