Best of British - My Top 40
The people whose work I most enjoy watching and all of whom I view as having incredible amounts of talent.
List activity
7.6K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
40 people
- Actress
- Soundtrack
An English stage and television actress. She was best known for her roles in British television sitcoms, such as Elizabeth in Keeping Up Appearances (1990) and Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine.
Tewson was born in Hampstead, London, England in 1931. Her father, William, was a professional musician and played the double bass in the BBC Symphony Orchestra; her mother, Kate (née Morley, born 1908), was a nurse. After grammar school, Tewson studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from which she graduated in 1952. She was briefly married to actor Leonard Rossiter; they divorced in 1961.
A regular comedy performer in sketches featuring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker on David Frost on Sunday and Hark at Barker (1970), she later appeared in Mostly Monkhouse, a BBC Radio comedy programme with David Jason supporting Bob Monkhouse. She also appeared a few times in Z-Cars (1963-69) and The Charlie Drake Show (1968). Tewson played Edna Hawkins (usually referred to as Mrs H by Shelley) in the first six series of the British sitcom Shelley (1979-82). Later, she played Jane Travers in Ronnie Barker's sitcom Clarence (1988), which he also wrote, and was his last starring television role before his retirement.
Tewson is best known for her role as Elizabeth, neighbour and confidant of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. Tewson appeared in nearly every episode for the five series run, providing an often rattled but pragmatic counter to the scattered and clueless Mrs Bouquet.
Tewson starred with John Inman in Odd Man Out (1977), a sitcom, where they played half-brother/half-sister roles.
Tewson appeared semi-regularly as Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine (2003-10), a series written by Roy Clarke who also wrote Keeping Up Appearances. She also appeared in two episodes of the documentary series Comedy Connections, talking about her work in Keeping Up Appearances (2004) and opposite The Two Ronnies (2005). In 2009, she played the role of Iris in the radio drama Leaves in Autumn written by Susan Casanove, produced by the Wireless Theatre Company.
Other television appearances were in an episode of Heartbeat ("Closing The Book", 2002) and as the competition judge, Samantha Johnstone, in an episode in the mystery drama Midsomer Murders ("Judgement Day", 2002). Later she was featured in two episodes of Doctors as kleptomaniac, Audrey Wilson, ("Now You See It...", 2009) and as Marjorie Page, a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease ("The Bespectacled Bounder," 2012). She also appeared in an episode of Lewis.
In 2012 Tewson launched her one-woman show Still Keeping Up Appearances? touring the UK.
She died on 18th August 2022 of natural causes at the age of 91.Favourite Roles - Elizabeth Warden in Keeping Up Appearances, Jane Travers in Clarence, Lucinda Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine, Dorothy Sutcliffe in Odd Man Out, Miss Bates in Hark at Barker, various roles in The Two Ronnie's, Mrs Hawkins in Shelley & Audrey and Marjorie in Doctors.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Ronnie Barker's remarkable versatility as a performer can be traced back to his time in repertory theatre, where he was able to play a wide range of roles and develop his talent for accents, voices and verbal dexterity. It was during this time that he met Glenn Melvyn, who taught him how to stammer (something he would later use to great effect in the sitcom Open All Hours (1976)). Melvyn also gave Ronnie his break into television by offering him a role in I'm Not Bothered (1956). During the 1960s, Ronnie became well-established in radio, providing multiple voices for "The Navy Lark" and working with comedy great Jon Pertwee. He also became a regular face on television, appearing in The Frost Report (1966) (perhaps most memorably in a sketch about Britain's class system, with John Cleese and Ronnie Corbett) and playing character roles on The Saint (1962) and The Avengers (1961).
In 1971, Ronnie teamed up with Ronnie Corbett again, this time for a BBC sketch series called The Two Ronnies (1971). This series proved enormously popular, continuing until the late 1980s. In addition to "The Two Ronnies", Barker starred on the popular BBC sitcoms Porridge (1974) (as a cockney prisoner) and Open All Hours (1976) (as a stammering Northern shopkeeper). In fact, only Leonard Rossiter could be said to have rivaled him during this time for the crown of British television's most popular comedy star. In 1982, he revived silent comedy in By the Sea (1982). Despite his extrovert performances on television, Barker remained a quiet, retiring individual in his personal life, much preferring to spend time with his family rather than mix with the celebrity crowd. This humility, combined with memories of his extraordinary abilities, meant that he continued to be greatly respected by his fellow professionals. In a BAFTA special shown by the BBC in 2004, stars as diverse as Gene Wilder, Peter Kay and Peter Hall paid tribute to his contribution to comedy and British television in general. Ronnie Barker died on 3 October 2005 after suffering from heart problems.Favourite Roles - Clarence Sale in Clarence, Arkwright in Open All Hours, Fletcher in Porridge, Lord Rustless in Hark at Barker & various roles in The Two Ronnies.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Lilian Ridgway, known professionally as Lynda Baron, was an English actress, best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC comedy series Open All Hours (1976-1985) and its sequel, Still Open All Hours (2013-2016).
From 1993 to 1997, she played Auntie Mabel in BBC children's programme Come Outside and in 2006, she starred as Linda Clarke in EastEnders, before returning from 2008 to 2009 and again in 2016.
Baron was born in Urmston, Lancashire. She was originally trained as a dancer at the Royal Academy of Dance. Early in her career, she appeared in repertory theatre and several West End venues.
Baron's early television roles included small parts in Crossroads (1964), Up Pompeii (1970), Z-Cars (1971) and the British horror film Hands of the Ripper (1971). Baron appeared on television in BBC-3 (1965), a series in the vein of That Was The Week That Was, involving some of the same performers. She also alternated with Annie Ross as the resident singer on Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1965). Baron has taken part in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who three times. She was heard as a singer in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters. She appeared in front of the cameras as Captain Wrack in the 1983 serial Enlightenment, and again in 2011 in Closing Time as Val.
Baron is best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the popular BBC comedy series Open All Hours with Ronnie Barker and David Jason which ran for four series in 1976, 1981 to 1982 and in 1985, and was subsequently voted eighth in Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Baron co-starred in the ITV sitcom Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! and the forgotten BBC sitcom A Roof Over My Head. She had small parts in Minder and Last of the Summer Wine. In 1986, she acted in a party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance.
Baron also appeared in the 1987 Christmas special of The Two Ronnies. Baron then went on to appear in the BBC Two comedy series KYTV.
In the 1990s, Baron played Auntie Pat in five episodes of the ITV sitcom The Upper Hand (1992-93). Baron then went on to star in the children's television series Come Outside (1993-97) playing Auntie Mabel, an everyday woman living in a bungalow, set in Denham flying round on various adventures in her spotted aeroplane with her dog Pippin.
In 1997, Baron played Renee Turnbull in Coronation Street and took guest roles in Dinnerladies (1998), The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (1998), Sunburn (1999), Nancherrow (1999) and Goodnight Sweetheart (1999).
Baron continued to work regularly on television and the stage in the 2000s, with credits including Fat Friends (2000-2005), The Bill (2000), Doctors (2000, 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2014), Peak Practice (2001), Holby City (2002 and 2006), Down to Earth (2005), Rome (2005) and Casualty (2009).
Baron briefly appeared in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 2006 as Linda Clarke, the mother of Jane Beale. In September 2008, it was announced that Baron would be returning to EastEnders.
She appeared regularly in the series from November 2008 to February 2009. On 8 April 2016, it was announced that Baron would return to the soap once again alongside John Partridge. She appeared on screen in May and June 2016.
In August 2010, Baron appeared in an episode of Agatha Christie's Marple on ITV. In September 2010, Baron appeared in a one-off television drama The Road to Coronation Street on BBC Four, a programme looking back at the early days of the British television soap opera Coronation Street. Baron portrayed actress Violet Carson who played Ena Sharples in the soap.
Baron was nominated for the 2011 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.
On 26 December 2013, Baron reprised her role in a special one-off episode of Open All Hours on BBC One, entitled Still Open All Hours.
In December 2016 Baron made a guest appearance in a Christmas special of Citizen Khan and in January 2017 she appeared in an episode of Father Brown.
In 1966, Baron married her husband, John M. Lee. They had two children, Sarah and Morgan.Favourite Roles - Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in Open All Hours, Violet Carson in The Road to Coronation Street, Lily Bless Her in Last of the Summer Wine, Linda Clarke in Eastenders, Norma Patterson in Fat Friends & Geppeto's wife in The Two Ronnie's.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Stephanie Cole was born in Warwickshire, England, UK. At the age of 15 she auditioned for, and was accepted to, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She began her career at the age of 17 playing a 90-year-old woman. She went on to play notable television roles, which included appearing in all 30 episodes of the prisoner-of-war drama Tenko (1981) and playing memorable characters in comedies such as Open All Hours (1976), A Bit of a Do (1989), Waiting for God (1990) and Doc Martin (2004), as well as legendary soap opera Coronation Street (1960).Favourite Roles - Diana Trent in Waiting For God, Mrs Featherstone in Open All Hours & Sylvia Goodwin in Coronation Street.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. Mirren attended St. Bernards High School for girls, where she would act in school productions. After high school, she began her acting career in theatre working in many productions including in the West End and Broadway.Favourite roles - Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, Alma in Hitchcock, Mrs Tingle in Teaching Mrs Tingle, Chris in Calender Girls, Rachel Singer in The Debt, Victoria in RED, Georgina in Greenfingers, Ida in Brighton Rock, Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, Sofya in The Last Station & Cameron Lynne in State of Play.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Daughter of Catherine and Isaac Routledge. Her father was a haberdasher, and, during WWII, the family lived weeks at a time in the basement of her father's shop. She attended Birkenhead High School, where she sang in the choir and ran the Sunday School. She studied English at Liverpool University, and, after graduation, worked without pay at the Liverpool Playhouse. She was asked to join the company, and she later studied at Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol. She then moved to London, where she built an impressive stage career over the next several years, also appearing on Broadway 1966-1968. Patricia has worked in TV since the early 1950s, most recently in Keeping Up Appearances (1990). She also recorded an album, "Presenting Patricia Routledge", and worked in film and radio. She has never married or had children, has said that she will not retire, and lives in Kensington and Surrey when not working.Favourite Roles - Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances, Hetty Wainthropp in Missing Persons and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Sheila Bowler in Anybody's Nightmare, Madame Vivian Bultitude in The Two Ronnie's & Madame Fontana in Steptoe & Son.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
David Jason was born in Edmonton, London, in 1940. He has become one of Britain's most famous, versatile and respected actors, who is most famous for his role in Only Fools and Horses (1981) as Del Boy. He made his debut in the series in 1981 and was still playing the same role up to the Christmas special in 2002. His big break came in the 1967 children's comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967) starring alongside members of the Monty Python team: Terry Jones; Eric Idle, and Michael Palin.
Sadly, in 1990, he spent time away from work to nurse Myfanwy Talog, the Welsh actress who was his long time partner, before she died of cancer at the age of 49. He has come a long way from his days as an electrician and has won numerous awards for his work. He has managed to combine the comedy aspect of his career with rather more serious roles, such as that of Jack Frost in the highly-rated detective series A Touch of Frost (1992) and has proved that he is a man of many talents. In the mid 1970s, he performed as Blanco, an elderly prisoner, in episodes of Porridge (1974) with Ronnie Barker. He has also done voice work in children's TV.
He has not really concentrated on films, although he was very impressive in the TV film All the King's Men (1999), playing Frank Beck, the Commander of the Sandringham Company who mysteriously disappeared whilst in action in The Great War campaign in Gallipoli in 1915.
He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Gill Hinchcliffe and their daughter, Sophie Mae, who was born in 2001. His hobbies are a little DIY and gardening. He was knighted in 2005, becoming Sir David Jason.Favourite Roles - Granville in Open All Hours, Blanco in Porridge, Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses, Dithers in Hark at Barker, The BFG (voice) & The Odd Job Man.- Actress
- Writer
- Stunts
Bold, brassy and larger than life, Pat Phoenix was television's favourite scarlet woman. For nearly 25 years, she dominated the soap opera Coronation Street (1960) in the role of Elsie Tanner and sent shivers down the spines of Britain's menfolk twice a week. With her cleavage displayed in low-cut tops, she was known as "the working man's Raquel Welch" and was once dubbed, by the then UK Prime Minister James Callaghan, "the sexiest woman on TV".
Phoenix's life very much mirrored that of the character she played. Tough and determined, she came from a working-class family in Manchester, but fought her way to the top. Married three times, she was blunt, outspoken and a notorious chain-smoker; but like Elsie Tanner, she had a heart of gold and inspired affection in everybody. She desperately wanted to be an actress but her first job was as a filing clerk. She broke into repertory theatre and worked throughout the north of England with a variety of companies. "I played everything" she said. "When I was 22, I played 90-year-old women. I was brought up in the theatre and I made my own way. I was in the theatre for many years before I was in television. The stage is most exhilarating. You know when an audience loves you".
After working with the Joan Littlewood Theatre Workshop in London in the early 1950s, she found herself out of work and nearly gave up acting. Success came in 1960 when, at the age of 36, she was cast as Elsie Tanner in Granada TV's new soap Coronation Street (1960). With the rise of interest in northern-based 1960s films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), the earthy characters and gritty settings of Coronation Street (1960) were a hit.
Created and written by Tony Warren, the role of the headstrong Elsie was a classic and transported Phoenix to international fame. Viewers followed "the Street" in such huge numbers that when she married US Army Sergeant Steve Tanner in 1967, over 20 million viewers tuned in to the programme. "I was one of the first anti-heroines" said Phoenix, "not particularly good looking and no better than I should be. The character of Elsie had overtones of me in it, and overtones of my mother".
Phoenix played Elsie for over 23 years, but shocked producers and audiences when she decided in 1983 to quit Coronation Street (1960) for good. She still remained on television in series such as Constant Hot Water (1986) and as an agony aunt for an early morning magazine programme. Her final television role was as a bedridden actress in Unnatural Causes (1986). She numbered Laurence Olivier among her many admirers and fans. Characteristically, she summed up her own talent saying by "I don't know what the word "star" means. I only know I am a working actress".Favourite Role - Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.- Actress
- Editor
- Soundtrack
Mary Millar had a very successful stage career in the West End. She began singing arias at the age of fourteen. Her London stage debut was in the 1962 production "Lock Up Your Daughters". She was in the original cast of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "The Phantom of the Opera", and can be heard on the cast recording performing the role of "Madame Giry". Her final performance was in 1996 as Mrs. Potts in the West End production of "Beauty and the Beast".Favourite Role - Rose in Keeping Up Appearances.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Helena Bonham Carter is an actress of great versatility, one of the UK's finest and most successful.
Bonham Carter was born May 26, 1966 in Golders Green, London, England, the youngest of three children of Elena (née Propper de Callejón), a psychotherapist, and Raymond Bonham Carter, a merchant banker. Through her father, she is the great-granddaughter of former Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith, and her blue-blooded family tree also contains Barons and Baronesses, diplomats, and a director, Bonham Carter's great-uncle Anthony Asquith, who made Pygmalion (1938) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), among others. Cousin Crispin Bonham-Carter is also an actor. Her maternal grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, was a Spanish diplomat who was awarded the honorific Righteous Among the Nations, by Israel, for helping save Jews during World War II (Eduardo's own father was a Czech Jew). Helena's maternal grandmother, Hélène Fould-Springer, was from an upper-class Jewish family from France, Austria, and Germany, and later converted to her husband's Catholic faith.
Bonham Carter experienced family dramas during her childhood, including her father's stroke - which left him wheelchair-bound. She attended South Hampstead High School and Westminster School in London, and subsequently devoted herself to an acting career. That trajectory actually began in 1979 when, at age thirteen, she entered a national poetry writing competition and used her second place winnings to place her photo in the casting directory "Spotlight." She soon had her first agent and her first acting job, in a commercial, at age sixteen. She then landed a role in the made-for-TV movie A Pattern of Roses (1983), which subsequently led to her casting in the Merchant Ivory films A Room with a View (1985), director James Ivory's tasteful adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, and Lady Jane (1986), giving a strong performance as the uncrowned Queen of England. She had roles in three other productions under the Merchant-Ivory banner (director Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala): an uncredited appearance in Maurice (1987), and large roles in Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) and Howards End (1992).
Often referred to as the "corset queen" or "English rose" because of her early work, Bonham Carter continued to surprise audiences with magnificent performances in a variety of roles from her more traditional corset-clad character in The Wings of the Dove (1997) and Shakespearian damsels to the dark and neurotic anti-heroines of Fight Club (1999). Her acclaimed performance in The Wings of the Dove (1997) earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination, a BAFTA Best Actress nomination, and a SAG Awards Best Actress nomination. It also won her a Best Actress Award from the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics, the Boston Society Film Critics, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Texas Society of Film Critics, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association.
In the late 1990s, Bonham Carter embarked on the next phase of her career, moving from capable actress to compelling star. Audiences and critics had long been enchanted by her delicate beauty, evocative of another time and place. Her late '90s and early and mid 2000s roles included Mick Jackson's Live from Baghdad (2002), alongside Michael Keaton, receiving a nomination for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe; Paul Greengrass' The Theory of Flight (1998), in which she played a victim of motor neurone disease; Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night (1996), in which she played Olivia; opposite Woody Allen in his Mighty Aphrodite (1995); Mort Ransen's Margaret's Museum (1995); Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein (1994); and Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet (1990).
Other notable credits include her appearance with Steve Martin in Novocaine (2001), Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes, in which she played an ape, Thaddeus O'Sullivan's The Heart of Me (2002), opposite Paul Bettany, and Big Fish (2003), her second effort with Tim Burton, in which she appeared as a witch.
In between her films, Helena has managed a few television appearances, which include her portrayal of Jacqui Jackson in Magnificent 7 (2005), the tale of a mother struggling to raise seven children - three daughters and four autistic boys; as Anne Boleyn in the two-parter biopic of Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone; and as Morgan Le Fey, alongside Sam Neill and Miranda Richardson, in Merlin. Earlier television appearances include Michael Mann's Miami Vice (1984) as Don Johnson's junkie fiancée, and as a stripper who wins Rik Mayall's heart in Dancing Queen (1993). Helena has also appeared on stage, in productions of Trelawney of the Wells, The Barber of Seville, House of Bernarda Alba, The Chalk Garden, and Woman in White.
Bonham Carter was nominated for a Golden Globe for the fifth time for her role in partner Tim Burton's film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), for which Burton and co-star Johnny Depp were also nominated. For the role, she was awarded Best Actress at the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2008. Other 2000s work includes playing Mrs Bucket in Tim Burton's massive hit Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), providing the voices for the aristocratic Lady Campanula Tottington in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and for the eponymous dead heroine in Tim Burton's spooky Corpse Bride (2005), and co-starring in Conversations with Other Women (2005) opposite Aaron Eckhart.
After their meeting while filming Planet of the Apes (2001), Bonham Carter and Tim Burton made seven films together. They lived in adjoining residences in London, shared a connecting hallway, and have two children: Billy Ray Burton, born in 2003, and Nell Burton, who was born in 2007. Ironically, a mutual love of Sweeney Todd was part of the initial attraction for the pair. Bonham Carter has said in numerous interviews that her audition process for the role of Mrs. Lovett was the most grueling of her career and that, ultimately, it was Sondheim who she had to convince that she was right for the role.Favourite roles - Dinah in The Heart of Me, Marla Singer in Fight Club, Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Enid Blyton in Enid, Esther in Sixty Six, The Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland & Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech.- Actress
- Producer
Amanda Burton was born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland. Leaving aged 18 to train as an actress at Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. Amanda has since become one of Britain's most respected and admired actresses often taking on leading strong roles in dramas. She is the mother of two daughters Phoebe (b. 1989) and Brid (b. 1990) and lives in London.Favourite Roles - Clare Blake in The Commander, Rachel Monroe in Forgotten, Karen Fisher in Waterloo Road, Aunt Polly in Pollyanna, Charlie's Mum in Bronson & Helen West.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anne was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne but the family moved to Redcar when the WWII started. She was educated at White House School where she acted in a school play of Romeo and Juliet with June Laverick, who when older would also take to the stage. When Anne got older she was sent to a boarding school, Penrose College, in North Wales and at 11 was in a choir. Her father became a special correspondent for the Daily Telegraph following in the footsteps of her grandfather, an uncle and 3 brothers who were all journalists. Anne took elocution lessons and did bits in plays with a teacher who recognising her talent helped her to get into RADA after which she worked as as a stage manager and some work in repertory. Her first work in television involved sketches with Benny Hill but gave up acting in 1974 before returning in 1986 eventually making her name in the part of Valerie Barlow in the television soap Coronation Street.Favourite Roles - Celia in Last Tango in Halifax, Vera in Ladies of Letters & May in The Mother.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Prunella Scales was born on 22 June 1932 in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Howards End (1992), Fawlty Towers (1975) and Wolf (1994). She has been married to Timothy West since 26 October 1963. They have two children.Favourite Roles - Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers & Sarah France in After Henry.- Sarah Thomas was born on 5 June 1952 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Madagascar Skin (1995) and Special Branch (1969).Favourite Role - Glenda in Last of the Summer Wine.
- Although Jane Freeman will forever be associated with the redoubtable cafe owner Ivy in Roy Clarke's long-running Last of the Summer Wine - appearing in 274 episodes over a 37-year run and a 1983 stage version - she was also an actor of considerable resources who remained steadfastly committed to the theatre.
If Clarke's BBC hit comedy overshadowed Freeman's later career, she was at pains not to be confined by it, appearing in regional rep, national tours and pantomimes throughout its long television life.
Born in Brentford, near London, she moved to Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, when her mother remarried, her father having died in an accident when she was nine. There she developed an early interest in performing at school. After graduating from the City of Cardiff [now Royal Welsh] College of Music and Drama in 1955, she moved to London before joining the Gloucestershire-based all-female Osiris Repertory Theatre touring company.
In 1958 she joined the Arena Theatre, Sutton Coldfield, where she began to attract attention, and was seen as Margaret More in the inaugural production of the Welsh Theatre Company, Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, at the New Theatre, Cardiff in 1962.
As a member of Birmingham Rep between 1968 and 1973, she toured to Chicago and made notable appearances in Edward Bond's Saved and the musical Guys and Dolls, and as Maggie Hobson in Harold Brighouse's Hobson's Choice.
When television filming commitments allowed, she could be found playing a number of strong, usually northern, matriarchs in Billy Liar (Nottingham Playhouse, 1980), touring productions of JB Priestley's When We Are Married and Michael Frayn's Noises Off (1987) and Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke's Situation Comedy (1989).
She scored a personal success as the sharp-tongued Emma Hornett in Philip King and Falkland Carey's Sailor Beware! at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1991), subsequently touring with it in 1992 and 1993.
Later theatre appearances included Pam Gems' Deborah's Daughter (Library Theatre, Manchester, 1994) and tours of William Ash's adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights in 1995 and again in 1998.
She made her television debut in Troy Kennedy-Martin and John McGrath's Marriage, directed by Ken Loach, in 1964. Her Play for Today appearances included Peter Terson's The Fishing Party (1972) and Alan Bleasdale's Scully's New Year's Eve (1978). Other notable credits included Roy Clarke's Of Funerals and Fish (1973), Blackadder (1982) and Mrs Kimble in Silas Marner (1985).
Her few film appearances included Scrubbers (1982), directed by Mai Zetterling.
She was married to Michael Simpson, the former artistic director of Birmingham Rep, from 1971 until his death in December 2007.
Jane Freeman died of lung cancer on March 9, 2017, aged 81.Favourite Role - Ivy in Last of the Summer Wine. - Kathy Staff was born on 12 July 1928 in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Mary Reilly (1996), Last of the Summer Wine (1973) and Open All Hours (1976). She was married to John Staff. She died on 13 December 2008 in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England, UK.Favourite Roles - Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine & Mrs Blewett in Open All Hours.
- Maggie Ollerenshaw, proud Mancunian and supporter of Manchester City football club since childhood, made her television debut in 1974. She is especially famous for playing comedic Northerners, particularly in the sitcoms 'Last of the Summer Wine' and its prequel 'First of the Summer Wine' and 'Open All Hours' and its belated follow-up 'Still Open All Hours' . The late Thora Hird, no mean comic actress herself, declared Maggie to be one of the finest light comedy actresses in the country but her versatility is shown by the range of her stage roles - playing intense American leads in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire', as well as Shakespearean roles in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and 'King John' for Barrie Rutter's Northern Broadsides company. In addition she has toured internationally in her own show 'Sincerely Yours', a tribute to singing icon Vera Lynn and adapted works to be broadcast as plays on BBC Radio 4. In 2007 she married fellow actor Geoff Leesley in New York.Favourite Roles - Mavis in Open All Hours & Mrs Clegg in First of the Summer Wine.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Brian Wilde was born on 13 June 1927 in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doing Time (1979), Last of the Summer Wine (1973) and Porridge (1974). He was married to Eva Stuart. He died on 20 March 2008 in Ware, Hertfordshire, England, UK.Favourite Roles - Mr Barrowclough in Porridge & Foggy in Last of the Summer Wine.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Peter started off as a junior bank clerk but he had always been interested in the theatre and went every week to the Intimate Theatre in Palmers Green in London which was run by actor John Clements. Serving in the RAF as a radio instructor one of his pupils was Peter Bridge (now a theatre impresario) who later asked him to play David Bliss in his production of 'Hay Fever', He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to make the theatre his profession.Favourite Roles - Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, Mr Clegg in First of the Summer Wine & Wallace (voice) in Wallace & Gromit.- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
There is one strange, mesmerizing film scene that easily sums up the disturbing fascination Eleanor Bron brought to her characters on stage, TV and in the cinema. This is the classic fig-eating scene which she shares with Alan Bates in the Oscar-winning drama Women in Love (1969). It is not to be missed. A dark, cold-eyed beauty, the unsmiling Eleanor would typically be cast as unapproachable, unsympathetic and intensely neurotic second leads/supports in classy film drama and costumers. And yet, there was another distinct side to her as well. In direct contrast to all the murkiness usually associated with her, Eleanor was a talented writer and performer of TV series comedy!
Eleanor was born in Stanmore, London in 1938 of Eastern European Jewish descent. The family's surname was Bronstein, but abbreviated to Bron by father Sidney, an established music publisher (Bron's Orchestral Service). She was educated at the North London Collegiate School and Newnham College, Cambridge. Older brother Gerry Bron later became a record producer (his Bronze Records label handled such rock groups as Uriah Heep) while another brother became a professor of medicine.
Eleanor started her career off in comedy sharing the same stage with Peter Cook (of "Beyond the Fringe" fame) in a Cambridge Footlights revue entitled "The Last Laugh" in 1959. This led to a plethora of comedy offers, writing and performing satires and spoofs on both radio and TV from the late 60s on, including "Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life," "World in Ferment," "Where Was Spring", "Beyond a Joke" and "After That, This" -- often in tandem with writer John Fortune or actor/writer John Bird
Eleanor made her film debut in the prominent role of the high priestess Ahme in the Beatles' second feature film Help! (1965). In fact, she is often credited to having inspired the name of the Beatles' #1 pop song hit "Eleanor Rigby". She showed just as much promise as a doctor who comes into contact with Michael Caine's worldly lover Alfie (1966), and as part of a vacationing foursome alongside Albert Finney, Audrey Hepburn and William Daniels, who played her screen husband, in the tearjerker Two for the Road (1967). Here Eleanor shows off her "other woman" formidableness that would reappear time and again. That same year she reteamed with comedian Peter Cook, who by now was partnered successfully with Dudley Moore, in Bedazzled (1967), and was third-billed as pregnant Sandy Dennis' friend and confidante in A Touch of Love (1969) [aka "Thank You All Very Much"].
Following her excellence as Alan Bates' supercilious wife in Women in Love (1969), and after a co-starring role in the satirical farce The National Health (1973), a biting comment on England's national health program, Eleanor was little seen in film, at least for the rest of the decade. TV took a good share of her time. Her features grew more severe as time passed and her characters more gargoyle-like. Unforgettable as Joanna Lumley's horror of a mother in episodes of the vitriolic comedy Absolutely Fabulous (1992), a softer core was occasionally glimpsed, as with her Virgin Mary in The Day Christ Died (1980), and her remote but touching Edith Frank in The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988). Back to feature films she proved as repelling as ever playing the arrogant Lady Wexmire (again opposite Peter Cook) in Black Beauty (1994) and the harsh, witchy-like Miss Minchin in A Little Princess (1995). Her film output in later years would include The House of Mirth (2000), The Heart of Me (2002), Love's Brother (2004) and the tennis comedy/drama Wimbledon (2004).
Throughout her career, Eleanor would maintain close ties with the classical and contemporary stage, giving vivid appearances in such plays as "The Doctor's Dilemma" (1966), "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1967), "Major Barbara" (1969), "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" (1970), "Hedda Gabler" (1970), "Luv" (1971), the West End musical "The Card" (1973), "Two for the Seesaw" (1974), "The Merchant of Venice" (1975), "Private Lives" (1976), "Uncle Vanya" (1977), "The Cherry Orchard" (1978), "The Real Inspector Hound" (1985), "The Duchess of Malfi" (1985), "The Miser" (1991) and "A Delicate Balance" (1997). More recently she appeared in the musical "Twopence to Cross the Mersey" (2005) and the plays "The Clean House" (2006), "In Extremis" (2007) and "All About My Mother" (2007), and has also performed her own one-woman shows "On My Own" and "Desdemona: If You Had Only Spoken". In the 1980s she appeared frequently in Secret Policeman's Balls live benefit shows, working in tandem with her favorite, Peter Cook, and other top comic entertainers as Rowan Atkinson. She also appeared in the film version of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1982).
Eleanor is the author of several books -- Life and Other Punctures is an account of bicycling in France and Holland; "The Pillow Book of Eleanor Bron, or An Actress Despairs" is a collection of notes and remembrances; and "Double Take" (1996) is a romantic novel. Long married to well-known architect Cedric Price, she became his widow in 2003. They had no children.Favourite Roles - Miss Minchin in A Little Princess, Augusta Colt in Wimbledon & Mrs. Burkett in The Heart of Me.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sophie Thompson is a British actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. A six-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the London revival of Into the Woods. Her other nominations were for Wildest Dreams (1994), Company (1996), Clybourne Park (2011) Guys and Dolls (2016) and 'Present Laughter' (2019). Thompson's film appearances include Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Persuasion (1995), Emma (1996), Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), Gosford Park (2001) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010). Her television roles include playing Stella Crawford in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2006-2007) and Rosemary Piper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2018).Favourite roles - Stella Crawford in Eastenders, Sarah McDonald in May Contain Nuts, Lydia in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Lorna in Lightfields & Penny in Love Life.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. Thompson's wit was cultivated by a cheerful, clever, creative family atmosphere, and she was a popular and successful student. She attended Cambridge University, studying English Literature, and was part of the university's Footlights Group, the famous group where, previously, many of the Monty Python members had first met.
Thompson graduated in 1980 and embarked on her career in entertainment, beginning with stints on BBC radio and touring with comedy shows. She soon got her first major break in television, on the comedy skit program Alfresco (1983), writing and performing along with her fellow Footlights Group alums Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. She also worked on other TV comedy review programs in the mid-1980s, occasionally with some of her fellow Footlights alums, and often with actor Robbie Coltrane.
Thompson found herself collaborating again with Fry in 1985, this time in his stage adaptation of the play "Me and My Girl" in London's West End, in which she had a leading role, playing Sally Smith. The show was a success and she received favorable reviews, and the strength of her performance led to her casting as the lead in the BBC television miniseries Fortunes of War (1987), in which Thompson and her co-star, Kenneth Branagh, play an English ex-patriate couple living in Eastern Europe as the Second World War erupts. Thompson won a BAFTA Award for her work on the program. She married Branagh in 1989, continued to work with him professionally, and formed a production company with him. In the late 80s and early 90s, she starred in a string of well-received and successful television and film productions, most notably her lead role in the Merchant-Ivory production of Howards End (1992), which confirmed her ability to carry a movie on both sides of the Atlantic and appropriately showered her with trans-Atlantic honors - both an Oscar and a BAFTA award.
Since then, Thompson has continued to move effortlessly between the art film world and mainstream Hollywood, though even her Hollywood roles tend to be in more up-market productions. She continues to work on television as well, but is generally very selective about which roles she takes. She writes for the screen as well, such as the screenplay for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), in which she also starred as Elinor Dashwood, and the teleplay adaptation of Margaret Edson's acclaimed play Wit (2001), in which she also starred.
Thompson is known for her sophisticated, skillful, though her critics say somewhat mannered, performances, and of course for her arch wit, which she is unafraid to point at herself - she is a fearless self-satirist. Thompson and Branagh divorced in 1994, and Thompson is now married to fellow actor Greg Wise, who had played Willoughby in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). Thompson and Wise have one child, Gaia, born in 1999. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama.Favourite Roles - Nanny McPhee, Mrs. Lincoln / Sarafine in Beautiful Creatures, Professor Sybil Trelawney in Harry Potter, Karen in Love Actually & Kate in The Tall Guy.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Celia Imrie is an Olivier award-winning and Screen Actors Guild-nominated actress, a Variety magazine 'Icon' and Women in Film and Television 'Lifetime Achievement award' winner. As well as her acclaimed film, television and theatre work, she is also a Sunday Times best-selling author. Celia is much loved for her film roles including The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel film series, The Bridget Jones film series, Calendar Girls, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, Finding Your Feet and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Most recent film work include Mrs Green in independent horror feature, Malevolent and Joan Erikson in Year By The Sea.
Television roles include, Phyllis in Pamela Adlon's semi-autobiographical comedy Better things, Kettle in Sky Atlantic and Showtime's Patrick Melrose, Vera in Barbara Vine's A Dark Adapted Eye and Maggie Pit in unconventional comedy Hang Ups.
Celia also has an extensive list of theatre credits and she has performed in many of London's major theatres. These include, Tony and Olivier Award winning comedy Noises Off at The Old Vic Theatre, Acorn Antiques: The Musical! at Theatre Royal Haymarket in which Celia won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2005, The Sea at The National Theatre opposite Dame Judi Dench and the universally acclaimed production of King Lear at the Old Vic in 2016.
Celia will soon take to the stage in Party Time/Celebration, the sixth double-bill of one-act plays in The Jamie Lloyd Company's Pinter at the Pinter Season, commemorating the 10th anniversary of Nobel Prize-winning writer Harold Pinter.Favourite Roles - Rowan Holdaway in Love and Marriage, Celia in Calender Girls, Madge in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Matron in St Trinian's, Mrs Quickly in Nanny McPhee, Mrs Thornton in The Commander, Homily Clock in The Borrowers, Lydice in Wimbledon & Una in Bridget Jone's Diary.- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor Robert Stephens and to playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until his death in 1999. She had two sons with Stephens, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens who are also actors.
Maggie Smith's career began at the Oxford Playhouse in the 1950s. She made her film debut in 1956 as one of the party guests in Child in the House (1956). She has since performed in over sixty films and television series with some of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world. These include: Othello (1965) with Laurence Olivier, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), California Suite (1978) with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, A Room with a View (1985), Richard III (1995) with Ian McKellen and Jim Broadbent, Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999) with Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher and Gosford Park (2001) with Kristin Scott Thomas and Clive Owen, directed by Robert Altman. Maggie Smith has also been nominated for an Oscar six times and won twice, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978).
Smith later appeared in the very successful 'Harry Potter' franchise as the formidable Professor McGonagall as well as in Julian Fellowes' ITV drama series, Downton Abbey (2010) (2010-2011) as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.Favourite Roles - Mrs Medlock in The Secret Garden, Jean Horton in Quartet, Muriel in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Mrs Docherty in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang & Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter.- Actress
- Soundtrack
For decades, British actress and comedienne Dame Julie Walters has served as a sturdy representation of the working class with her passionate, earthy portrayals on England's stage, screen and television. A bona fide talent, her infectious spirit and self-deprecating sense of humor eventually captured the hearts of international audiences. The small and slender actress with the prominent cheekbones has yet to give an uninteresting performance.
She was born Julia Mary Walters on February 22, 1950 in Edgbaston, England, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Mary Bridget (O'Brien), an Irish-born postal clerk from County Mayo, and Thomas Walters, an English-born builder, from Birmingham. Convent schooled in Birmingham, she expressed an early desire to act. However, her iron-willed mother had other ideas and geared her towards a nursing career. Dutifully applying at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, Julie eventually gave up nursing when the pull to be an actress proved too strong.
Studying English and Drama at Manchester Polytechnic, she subsequently joined a theatre company in Liverpool and apprenticed as a stand-up comic. A one-time company member of the Vanload improv troupe, she made her London stage debut in the aptly-titled comedy "Funny Peculiar" in 1975, and went on to develop a successfully bawdy act on the cabaret circuit. While at Manchester, Julie befriended aspiring writer/comedienne Victoria Wood and the twosome appeared together in sketch comedy. A couple of their works, "Talent" and "Nearly a Happy Ending", transferred to television and were accompanied by rave reviews. Eventually, they were handed their own television series, Wood and Walters (1981).
In 1980, Julie scored a huge solo success under the theatre lights when she made her London debut in Willy Russell's "Educating Rita". For her superlative performance, she won both the Variety Critic's and London Critic's Circle Awards as the young hairdresser who vows to up her station in life by enrolling in a university. She conquered film as well when Educating Rita (1983) transferred to the big screen opposite Michael Caine as her Henry Higgins-like college professor, collecting a Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination. Reuniting with Victoria Wood in 1984, the pair continue to appear together frequently on television, most recently with the award-winning series dinnerladies (1998). On stage, Julie has impressed in a variety of roles ranging from the contemporary ("Fool for Love", "Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune") to the classics ("Macbeth", "The Rose Tattoo" and "All My Sons"), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for the last-mentioned play.
Following her success as Rita, she immediately rolled out a sterling succession of film femmes including her seedy waitress-turned successful brothel-owner in Personal Services (1987); the unsophisticated, small-town wife of Phil Collins in Buster (1988); a boozy, man-chasing mum in Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother (1989); and Liza Minnelli's abrasive tap student in Stepping Out (1991). Playing a wide variety of ages, she also mustered up a very convincing role as the mother of Joe Orton in the critically-acclaimed Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
Julie capped her career in films as the abrasively stern but encouraging dance teacher in Billy Elliot (2000) which earned her a second Oscar nomination and a healthy helping of quirky character roles, including her charming, charity-driven widow who poses à la natural in Calendar Girls (2003), and the maternal witch-wife Molly Weasley in the J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter" series beginning with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). For her work on film and television, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has honored Julie five times, including four awards in a row (2001-2004).
Married to Grant Roffey since 1997 after a 12-year relationship, the couple tend to a 70-acre organic farm they bought in Sussex. They have one daughter, Maisie Mae Roffey (born 1988). In 1999, Julie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama, and in 2008, was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 2017, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Other more recent millennium films for Dame Julie include Wah-Wah (2005), Becoming Jane (2007) (as Jane Austen's mother), Mamma Mia! (2008), Paddington (2014), Brooklyn (2015), Paddington 2 (2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and The Secret Garden (2020) as Mrs. Medlock.Favourite Roles - Rosie in Mamma Mia, Annie in Calender Girls & Molly Weasley in Harry Potter.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her childhood and teens, and at age 20, she launched her stage career in a London Palladium production of "Cinderella".
Andrews came to Broadway in 1954 with "The Boy Friend", and became a bona fide star two years later in 1956, in the role of Eliza Doolittle in the unprecedented hit "My Fair Lady". Her star status continued in 1957, when she starred in the TV-production of Cinderella (1957) and through 1960, when she played "Guenevere" in "Camelot".
In 1963, Walt Disney asked Andrews if she would like to star in his upcoming production, a lavish musical fantasy that combined live-action and animation. She agreed on the condition if she didn't get the role of Doolittle in the pending film production of My Fair Lady (1964). After Audrey Hepburn was cast in My Fair Lady, Andrews made an auspicious film debut in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Andrews continued to work on Broadway, until the release of The Sound of Music (1965), the highest-grossing movie of its day and one of the highest-grossing of all time. She soon found that audiences identified her only with singing, sugary-sweet nannies and governesses, and were reluctant to accept her in dramatic roles in The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Torn Curtain (1966). In addition, the box-office showings of the musicals Julie subsequently made increasingly reflected the negative effects of the musical-film boom that she helped to create. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) was for a time the most successful film Universal had released, but it still couldn't compete with Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music for worldwide acclaim and recognition. Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970) also bombed at the box office.
Fortunately, Andrews did not let this keep her down. She worked in nightclubs and hosted a TV variety series in the 1970s. In 1979, Andrews returned to the big screen, appearing in films directed by her husband Blake Edwards, with roles that were entirely different from anything she had been seen in before. Andrews starred in 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981) and Victor/Victoria (1982), which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
She continued acting throughout the 1980s and 1990s in movies and TV, hosting several specials and starring in a short-lived sitcom. In 2001, she starred in The Princess Diaries (2001), alongside then-newcomer Anne Hathaway. The family film was one of the most successful G-Rated films of that year, and Andrews reprised her role as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). In recent years, Andrews appeared in Tooth Fairy (2010), as well as a number of voice roles in Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Enchanted (2007), Shrek Forever After (2010), and Despicable Me (2010).Favourite Roles - Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins, Queen Clarisse in The Princess Diaries (2), Maria in The Sound of Music & the Queen (voice) in Shrek.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Julie Graham was born on 24 July 1965 in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007), Being Eileen (2011) and Shetland (2013). She has been married to Davy Croket since 11 September 2019. She was previously married to Joseph Bennett.Favourite Roles - Abby Grant in Survivors, Jean in The Bletchley Circle, Mary in William and Mary, Dr Laura Parr in Midsomer Murders & Mandy in Lapland and Being Eileen.- Actress
- Art Director
- Producer
Ashley Jensen (born on 11 August 1969) is a Scottish actress and narrator. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role on the television series Extras (2005), on which she appeared from 2005-2007. She was also a cast member on the ABC show Ugly Betty (2006) and the brief-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose (2009).Favourite Roles - Christina McKinney in Ugly Betty, Maggie Jacobs in Extras, Sarah in Love and Marriage, Jennifer in Nativity & Kate in The Escape Artist.- Actress
- Music Department
- Director
Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and at Old Vic Theatre. She is a ten-time BAFTA winner including Best Actress in a Comedy Series for A Fine Romance (1981) in which she appeared with her husband, Michael Williams, and Best Supporting Actress in A Handful of Dust (1988) and A Room with a View (1985). She received an ACE award for her performance in the television series Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill (1985). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1970, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1988 and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2005.Favourite Roles - Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal & Evelyn Greenslade in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.- Doreen June Mantle was born 22 June 1926 in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a character actress who is probably best known for her recurring role as Mrs Warboys in the long-running British sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990) appearing in 18 episodes in the 1990s.
Mantle first travelled to Britain with her parents when she was just six weeks old. Around four years later they returned to South Africa. She then returned to the UK permanently in her late twenties.
She appeared in many British television series from the 1960s to the present, such as The Duchess of Duke Street, The Wild House, Chalk (1997), Casualty (1986), The Bill (1984), Doctors (2000), Holby City (1999), Love Soup (2005) and Jonathan Creek (1997). She played lollipop lady Queenie in Clatterford (2006).
Mantle has worked extensively on the stage in such productions as My Fair Lady, Keep It in the Family, The Seagull and Hamlet. She also toured Britain in Billy Liar in the role of Florence Boothroyd and performed at the National Theatre in The Voysey Inheritance. In 1979 she was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Death of a Salesman. She also did a great deal of radio work for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service.
In 2011 Mantle appeared in Coronation Street (1960) as the mother of Colin Fishwick whose identity was taken by John Stape.Favourite Roles - Mrs Warboys in One Foot in the Grave & Joy Fishwick in Coronation Street. - Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Helen Cotterill has had a long acting career since the early 1960s with one of her first acting roles being in the H.V. Kershaw-produced series for Granada, The Villains in 1964. The year after, she appeared in The Brain Drain, the final episode of the first season of the Coronation Street spin-off Pardon the Expression as Beryl, a vacuous shop assistant at Dobson and Hawkes who didn't even know the name of the then-Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. Twenty years later, she appeared in the video The Jubilee Years as Alice Hughes who had supposedly once lived at 13 Coronation Street before emigrating to Australia. It took until 2013 for her to appear in the parent programme as Margaret Cropper, Roy's stepmother. She appeared in the BBC soap The Newcomers in the late 1960s and also acted in popular dramas and comedies such as The Wednesday Play, Armchair Theatre, The Liver Birds, Love Thy Neighbour and had a regular role in the Thames Television comic-drama Born and Bred in 1980.
Her most recent credits include Casualty, Holby City and Doctors. Her extensive list of stage work includes three years with Sir Ian McKellen's Actors' Company on British, South American and Scandinavian tours and she is an accomplished watercolour painter and sells at exhibitions and by commission.Favourite Roles - Julie in Open All Hours and Margaret Cropper in Coronation Street.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anna Dawson was born on 27 July 1937 in Bolton, Lancashire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Brian Rix Presents ... (1960), Six with Rix (1972) and Dixon of Dock Green (1955). She has been married to John Boulter since 11 October 1985.Favourite Roles - Violet in Keeping Up Appearances & various in The Benny Hill Show.- Jean Fergusson was born on 30 December 1944 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Run for Your Wife (2012) and Coronation Street (1960). She died on 14 November 2019.Favourite Role - Marina in Last of the Summer Wine.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jean Margaret Hodgkinson, known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to British television viewers as Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street (1960), a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street (1960), she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.
Alexander was born at 18 Rhiwlas Street Toxteth, Liverpool, in 1926, to Nell and Archie Hodgkinson; her father worked as an electrician and the family lived in a terraced house with no indoor lavatory. Alexander had an elder brother, Kenneth. She aspired to become an actress from an early age, and later said that she was inspired by variety acts she saw at the Pavilion theatre in her home city. She attended St Edmund's College for Girls in Princes Park, Toxteth and as a teenager, she joined an amateur theatre group and took elocution lessons.
Alexander spent five years as a library assistant in Liverpool before she began her acting career in 1949 at the Adelphi Guild Theatre in Macclesfield. She first appeared as Florrie in Sheppey by Somerset Maugham. She later worked in rep in Oldham, Stockport and York. Most of her parts were minor, and she also worked as a wardrobe mistress and stage manager. Her television debut is variously given as in the police series Z-Cars or in Deadline Midnight.
Alexander first appeared in Coronation Street in 1962 in a minor role as a landlady. Two years later, she returned to the programme as Hilda Ogden. She started playing the role on 8 July 1964, finally leaving on 25 December 1987. Ogden became highly popular with viewers and Alexander was often identified with her character.
The British League for Hilda Ogden was established in 1979 by Sir John Betjeman, Willis Hall, Russell Harty, Laurence Olivier and Michael Parkinson, among others. In 1984, hundreds of fans sent her condolence cards after the death of her on-screen husband Stan Ogden, played by Bernard Youens, who had died a few months before his character was killed off. In 1985 she received the Royal Television Society Award for her performance on Coronation Street. When she decided to leave the show in 1987, fans started "Save Hilda!" campaigns; however, many did not realise that she had made her own decision to depart. Her final scenes in the programme were aired on 25 December 1987, attracting nearly 27 million viewers, the highest number in the show's history.
In 2005 the UK TV Times poll voted her as the "Greatest Soap Opera Star of All Time".Favourite Roles - Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street & Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine.- David Neilson was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire on 13th March 1949 and attended Garendon Secondary Modern School, leaving when he was 15 years old. He was 20 when he decided to try for drama school, auditioned successfully and did a 3-year drama course at the Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1972 he went into rep in Watford. In his time, he has worked as a gas fitter, plumber, ice cream salesman and barman. Since becoming an actor he had stints as a theatre director, (running the Little Theatre Company in Bristol and directing the premiere of Raymond Briggs' "When The Wind Blows" at the Whitehall Theatre, London), taught drama at RADA Central and Rose Bruford College, and written plays. His "Robin Hood-The Truth Behind The Green Tights" is published by Samuel French, pre-dates and is funnier than Mel Brooks's version which has a similar title. He was interviewed for his current role as Roy Cropper in "Coronation Street" after having been recommended for it by the writer, Stephen Mallatratt.Favourite Role - Roy Cropper in Coronation Street.
- Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, to Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actress. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens. Her big break came in 1970 when she was cast as Catherine of Aragon in the BBC television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, for which she won the 1971 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. In 1973, she starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the BBC serial, A Picture of Katherine Mansfield.
In 1975, Crosbie made a similar impact as another Queen, Queen Victoria, in the ITV period drama Edward the Seventh, for which she won the 1976 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. She played Cinderella's fairy godmother in The Slipper and the Rose, which was chosen as the Royal Film Première for 1976. In that film, Crosbie sang the Sherman Brothers' song, "Suddenly It Happens". In Ralph Bakshi's animated movie, The Lord of the Rings, filmed in 1978, Crosbie voiced the character of Galadriel, Lady of the Elves. In 1980, she played the abbess in Hawk the Slayer. In 1986, she appeared as the vicar's wife in Paradise Postponed.
After appearing in the BBC1 drama Take Me Home, Crosbie's next major role was as Margaret Meldrew, the long-suffering wife of Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson) in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990-2000) for which she is best known. She also played Janet, the housekeeper to Dr. Finlay, in the 1993 revival of A.J. Cronin's popular stories. She also had a poignant role in the thriller The Debt Collector (1999).
Crosbie's other roles include playing the monkey-lover Ingrid Strange in an episode of Jonathan Creek (1997), Edith Sparshott in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1997-2001), and Jessie in the film Calendar Girls (2003). In 2004, Crosbie appeared alongside Sam Kelly in an episode of the third series of Black Books, as the mother of the character Manny Bianco. In the series six and seven of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Old Harry's Game, she played a recently deceased historian named Edith.
In 2008 she appeared in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit and an AXA Sun Life television advertisement for the over-50s. In 2009, she portrayed Sadie Cairncross in the BBC television series Hope Springs. In 2010 Crosbie appeared in the Doctor Who episode "The Eleventh Hour" and in the New Tricks episode "Coming Out Ball". In 2014 Crosbie appeared in the movies What We Did on Our Holiday and Into the Woods. In 2015 she appeared in a BBC adaptation of the novel Cider with Rosie. In 2016 she appeared in the new film version of Dad's Army .
Crosbie was awarded an OBE in 1998 for services to drama.
Crosbie is divorced from Michael Griffiths, the father of both her children, Owen and Selina (also an actress).
She is a campaigner for greyhound welfare. Since 2003, she has been President of the League Against Cruel Sports. She has also fronted commercials for Sun Life Direct insurance.Favourite Roles - Margaret Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave, Jessie in Calender Girls & Sadie in Hope Springs. - Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Richard Wilson OBE (born Iain Carmichael Wilson) is a Scottish actor, theatre director and broadcaster. He played Victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990). A later role was as Gaius, the court physician of Camelot, in the BBC drama Merlin (2008).
Wilson was born in Greenock, Scotland. He studied science in Greenock, and did National Service with the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in Singapore. He worked in a laboratory at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow as a research scientist before switching to acting when he was 27. He trained at RADA and then appeared in repertory theatres in Edinburgh (Traverse Theatre), Glasgow and Manchester (Stables Theatre).
He initially turned down the role of Victor Meldrew and it was almost offered to Les Dawson before Wilson changed his mind.
Wilson was awarded the OBE for services to drama as a director and actor in 1994. In April 1996, he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow for a term of three years.
Wilson's biography, One Foot on the Stage: The Biography of Richard Wilson, was written by James Roose-Evans.
Wilson has worked for the gay rights campaign group Stonewall, and is one of the patrons of Scottish Youth Theatre. He is also a long-time supporter of the charity Sense, and in 2007 hosted their annual award ceremony. He is also one of the honorary patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.
The narration of "The Man Who Called Himself Jesus", from Strawbs' eponymous first album, was performed by Wilson.
He is a major supporter of the Labour Party, and he recorded the party's manifesto for the 2010 General Election.
In March 2011, Wilson presented an edition of the Channel 4 current affairs programme Dispatches (1987) entitled Train Journeys from Hell (2011), with transport journalist Christian Wolmar highlighting the failings of the British rail network.
Wilson was a supporter of his local football club, Greenock Morton, but he has come to lend greater support to English club Manchester United. He is a patron of the Manchester United Supporters Trust. Wilson has been a campaigner for gay rights for many years, and he came out as gay in a Daily Mail interview in March 2013. He is good friends with his One Foot in the Grave (1990) co-star Angus Deayton, and is godfather to Deayton's son.
It was reported on 12 August 2016 that Wilson had suffered a heart attack. He had been due to reprise the role of Victor Meldrew in a one-man show at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.Favourite Roles - Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave & the dentist in Mr Bean.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Janine Drzewicki was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe to an English mother and a Polish father. She attended school in Nottingham and later moved to London to train as an actress at the E 15 theatre school. Shortly after leaving she was given a couple of small roles in television dramas but had no agent, and placed an advert in the 'Spotlight' agency catalogue with a photograph. As a result she was approached by the BBC to test for a play about incest, entitled Diane (1975). Although she was in her early 20s the part was that of a 13-year-old girl but her audition was sufficiently convincing to win her the role. The door thus opened to her for more TV and stage roles and, whilst she was appearing in 'Don Juan' at Hampstead Theatre, London, she was spotted by Mike Leigh who offered her the part of Angie in the stage production of Abigail's Party (1977), which she repeated in the television version. A familiar face in television comedy series, she has nonetheless been given very little of note in the cinema, playing typically small roles as mad women in Dracula (1979) and The Madness of King George (1994). Married to the actor Paul Bentall, she has two sons and two daughters, one being the actress Ruby Bentall, and lives in London.Favourite Roles - Jane Edwards in Waiting For God, Pippa in One Foot in the Grave & Jacqueline Stewart in Benidorm.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Ronnie Corbett began his successful show business career in the early 1950s. Amongst many other things he performed on stage with Danny La Rue in a cacophony of well received variety and cabaret shows.
It was whilst performing in these shows that Corbett attracted the attention of several top TV producers and executives who were impressed with his abilities as a stand up comedian, compare and all round entertainer.
Before too long Corbett found himself being offered roles in various sitcoms, films and family shows.
His varied film roles include "Polo" in the spoof Bond film Casino Royale (1967), "Drooby" in Mad Little Island (1958) and finally the hapless "Chumleigh" in Fun at St Fanny's (1955).
On television he provided light hearted comedy in Crackerjack! (1955) for many years.
His big break came during the 1960s when he was asked to join the cast of the hugely popular The Frost Report (1966) which included the likes of John Cleese and of course David Frost.
The show also saw him performing alongside Ronnie Barker for the very first time. All aspects of "The Frost Report" were very funny but some of the most enjoyable involved Barker and Corbett who shared a rare comic chemistry between each other.
TV producers recognized this chemistry and there were talks of giving the pair their own comedy series.
Corbett had numerous projects in the late sixties including the enjoyable The Corbett Follies (1969) and No - That's Me Over Here! (1967). Then in 1971 Barker asked him to star in the comedy sketch series The Ronnie Barker Yearbook (1971).
The rest is history - the Two Ronnies had arrived together - it was simply comic genius, Barker and Corbett were made for each other, a pairing that was just destined to be. Later on that year The Two Ronnies (1971) show was born on BBC 1 and remained incredibly popular well into the late eighties when Barker sadly announced his retirement from television.
There is no doubt that Ronnie Barker is the best comedy actor of his generation, but over the years many critics have unfairly overlooked the brilliant talents of Corbett - he is a fantastically versatile comedy actor in his own right. He was an equal part in the relationship - put simply he complemented Barker and Barker complemented him.
As well as being a wonderful comedy actor Corbett is also an accomplished after dinner speaker and of course a very very funny stand up comedian. During the filming of the "Two Ronnies" Corbett found time to branch off into a whole host of other projects as did Ronnie Barker.
First there were his own shows such as The Saturday Special: All This and Ronnie Corbett Too (1975), The Prince of Denmark (1974) and The Ronnie Corbett Special (1979). Then came his excellent sitcom Sorry! (1981) which ran for over seven years. There were also films such as No Sex Please - We're British (1973).
Ronnie Corbett has enjoyed continued success in both film and television. He starred alongside old friend John Cleese, and Jamie Lee Curtis in the film Timbuctoo (1998), has done numerous pantomimes with Frank Skinner and Paul Merton and is one of the stars in The All Star Comedy Show (2004) with Steve Coogan, Vic Reeves, Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
In 2005 Corbett reunited with Barker to present a special six part series looking back at their favorite moments from the "Two Ronnies".
Corbett is a charismatic and extremely likable man - there is absolutely no doubt that he will be fondly remembered by millions of people as being not only half of one of the most successful comedy duos of all time, but also as a truly brilliant entertainer.Favourite Roles - Various in The Two Ronnie's.