Ellie Haddington has been on our screens for over three decades
Ellie Haddington stars as Rose Gough in Granite Harbour season three(Image: BBC)
Granite Harbour has returned to television screens, welcoming several fresh faces to the cast for its third series.
The detective drama, shot in Aberdeen, Glasgow and various Scottish locations during October 2025, made its comeback earlier this month with Dawn Steele returning as DCI Cora Macmillan, joined by Romario Simpson as DC Davis Lindo and Hannah Donaldson portraying DS Lara ‘Bart’ Bartlett.
New additions for the third series include Monarch of the Glen’s Alastair Mackenzie and Traces star John Gordon Sinclair. The complete cast listing can be found here.
This year also features several guest appearances, notably Ellie Haddington in the role of Rose Gough. Rose serves as the matriarch of the local traveller community, which becomes central to the third series following the disappearance of teenage café employee Lisa Sterling into woodland surrounding the exclusive estate belonging to Richard Loughty, after Rose’s birthday festivities.
DCI Cora MacMillan played by Dawn Steele and Richard Loughty played by Alastair Mackenzie in Granite Harbour(Image: BBC)
Come morning, Lisa’s body is found at the foot of a ravine. What first seems like a terrible accident soon proves to be murder, reports the Daily Record.
Audiences will undoubtedly recognise Ellie Haddington, 71, who has graced screens for more than 30 years across numerous films and television programmes.
Ellie’s major break arrived in 1995 when she landed the part of Josie Clarke in ITV’s Coronation Street. She appeared in more than 100 episodes of the long-running soap opera before leaving in 1996.
Back in 2004, Ellie portrayed Kathleen in Life Begins, before taking on the part of Joy Masterson in Bad Girls the following year. By 2011, she was appearing as Carol Porter in The Café.
(Image: BBC)
Her impressive portfolio also encompasses Hilda Pierce in Foyle’s War, Fanny Biggetywitch in Dickensian, Agatha Chudleigh in Ripper Street, Wendy in Close to Me and Avril Lennox in Irvine Welsh’s Crime.
In recent years, Ellie has gained widespread recognition for her performance as Marion in the BBC success story Motherland and as Sheila Gemmell in Guilt. Over the past 12 months, she’s appeared in guest roles as Meg McGrath on Silent Witness and Lana Mair in Shetland.
Her television appearances have also included Heartbeat, Casualty, The Bill, Wing and a Prayer, Midsomer Murders, Cutting It, Sea of Souls, Doctor Who, and Ordinary Lies.
On the big screen, her work features Enola Holmes and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Ellie Haddington in Coronation Street (Image: ITV)
Ellie appears in Granite Harbour’s third series alongside guest performers Alastair Mackenzie and John Gordon Sinclair. Discussing the experience of working with the guest cast, Romario Simpson, who takes on the role of DC Davis Lindo, commented: “It was incredible. They’re such experienced actors who have worked on so many productions, but they’re also genuinely lovely people. We had great conversations, I learned a lot from them, and it was fascinating to watch how they approach scripts and make the dialogue feel completely natural and authentic.”
Acknowledging how much he gained from working with Ellie, Romario said: “Ellie Haddington really stood out to me. She was able to take what was on the page and make it completely truthful, almost improvising while still keeping the meaning exactly the same. Watching how she took her time and delivered a scene so naturally was really insightful.”
Granite Harbour series 3 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.