Elaine Collins

Collins made her acting debut in 1975, appearing in a guest role in the series Lord Peter Wimsey. Her most prominent roles include films such as Soft Top Hard Shoulder (1992),^[1] Mrs Brown (1997), The Wyvern Mystery (2000) and television shows City Lights (1984–1987), Selling Hitler (1991), and Psychos (1999).^[2]

Since the 2000s, Collins prefers to work behind the camera. She was an associate producer on the 2001 drama film Strictly Sinatra.^[3] She worked as a script editor on the detective series A Touch of Frost from 2008 to 2010. In 2011, she became a producer and executive producer at ITV Studios, and helped to create the crime mystery Vera.^[4] Collins joined BBC Drama in 2014 as a creative director, where she was responsible for developing and producing first three series of the crime drama Shetland.^[5]

In 2017, she founded film production company Tod Productions.^[6] She produced the thriller Criminal Record for Apple TV+ in collaboration with STV Studios, which premiered in 2024.^[7][8]

Tod's slate of television dramas in the pipeline includes a couple of book adaptations. They F*ck You Up,^[9][10] scripted by Thomas Eccleshare and directed by Collins' husband Peter Capaldi, is based on Sarah Naish's memoir But He Looks So Normal: A Bad-Tempered Parenting Guide for Adopters and Foster Parents.^[11] The Jigsaw Murders is about the 1935 murders of Dr Buck Ruxton and based on the true crime book The Jigsaw Murders: The True Story of the Ruxton Killings and the Birth of Modern Forensics by journalist and author Jeremy Craddock.^[12][13][14]

In 2024 it was announced that Collins and Tod Productions had optioned Charles Beaumont's espionage novel A Spy Alone.^[15][16][17]

Collins has been married to the actor Peter Capaldi since 1991. They met in 1983 while working for the Paines Plough Theatre Company.^[2] They have a daughter born in 1992 and two grandsons (b. 2021 and 2023).^[18][19] The family lives in Muswell Hill, London.^[20]