13:59, 20 Aug 2025Updated 13:59, 20 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
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Amanda Burton has a long association with Manchester, having studied, lived and worked here(Image: Mike Marsland via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Amanda Burton has enjoyed a storied career on our television screens – with much of it coming thanks to her time spent in Manchester.<\/p>\n
The star got her big break in Merseyside-based soap Brookside, which is returning to our screens thanks to a special crossover episode with Hollyoaks<\/a>. Her role in the soap back in 1982 was her first job after finishing drama school in Manchester.<\/p>\n After leaving her native Northern Ireland<\/a> at the age of 18, she pursued acting school prospects. Amanda decided on Manchester Polytechnic School of Film, TV and Theatre on the basis that “it was the nearest place I could find to Ireland”.<\/p>\n Since then, Burton has become a fixture on our television screens throughout the years, appearing in numerous popular series. She played a prominent role in the Manchester-based drama Waterloo Road<\/a>, when she joined the cast as the beleaguered school’s latest headteacher back in 2010 for season six.<\/p>\n Playing Karen Fisher meant a return to the Greater Manchester area for Amanda. With the show being filmed in Rochdale<\/a>, she spent roughly a year on location shooting 30 episodes after agreeing to appear for one season.<\/p>\n Now 68 years old, she has enjoyed a glittering career and leads a peaceful life beside the sea on England’s south coast in Sussex. She was born in 1956 as the youngest of four daughters and rraised in Ballougry, a rural townland on the south-western edges of Derry City, where her family lived adjacent to Ballougry Primary School.<\/p>\n Her father, Arthur Burton, worked as headmaster at the school<\/a>, which she attended as a child. Her mother, of English heritage, was related to Oscar Wilde.<\/p>\n Being the youngest sibling, she was constantly encouraged to embrace life’s possibilities. She told the Express<\/a> in 2016: “I had the most wonderful parents and the most idyllic childhood.<\/p>\n “Both my mum and dad had an incredible zest for life and if that’s your blueprint as you grow up, it’s the way you tend to live your own life, too.” At the age of 18, she began studying in Manchester<\/a>.<\/p>\n A few years later, she joined the cast of Brookside, portraying the character of accountant Heather Huntington. Heather was Amanda’s debut TV role and she rapidly became a favourite amongst the show’s fans.<\/p>\n The Northern Irish actress starred in 143 episodes of the long-standing Channel 4 <\/a>soap from 1982. Following the breakdown of her marriage, Heather was involved in memorable storylines including the death of her second husband Nicholas Black – which led her to revert back to her character’s maiden name of Haversham.<\/p>\n![\"Amanda](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/C_71_article_1419233_image_list_image_list_item_0_image.jpg\")
Amanda Burton as Waterloo Road headteacher Karen Fisher with Robson Green as caretaker Rob Scotcher<\/p>\n![\"Actress](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Amanda-Burton.jpg\")
Actress Amanda Burton in her first television role as Heather Huntington in Brookside(Image: TV Times\/Future Publishing )<\/p>\n
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Amanda Burton and director Richard Signy on the set of crime drama series Silent Witness in 1997(Image: TV Times\/Future Publishing)<\/p>\n