Brenda Bruce
Encyclopedia
Brenda Bruce was a British actress. She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film, and television.
. Bruce started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.
(1936–1939) and a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company
(RSC). She was the RSC's resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975, and 1995. She also appeared as Irma in the RSC's production of Jean Genet
's The Balcony
in 1971.
In the 1950s she appeared on television in many dramas, and in a chat show Rich and Rich with her husband. She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett
's Happy Days
, and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in "Murder Most English".
Brenda Bruce played P. G. Wodehouse
's character Aunt Dahlia
in the 1990s production of Jeeves and Wooster
with Stephen Fry
and Hugh Laurie
. Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who
story "Paradise Towers
", Bea in the rag trade drama Connie, and in the The Riff Raff Element
. In 1964, she also had the important role of Mary Lewis in Nightmare
. In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea
, a short-lived sitcom.
Early life
Brenda Bruce was born in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Bruce started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.
Acting career
She was with the Birmingham Repertory CompanyBirmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a theatre and theatre company based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England...
(1936–1939) and a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
(RSC). She was the RSC's resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975, and 1995. She also appeared as Irma in the RSC's production of Jean Genet
Jean Genet
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
's The Balcony
The Balcony
The Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...
in 1971.
In the 1950s she appeared on television in many dramas, and in a chat show Rich and Rich with her husband. She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's Happy Days
Happy Days (play)
Happy Days is a play in two acts, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. He began the play on 8 October 1960 and it was completed on 14 May 1961. Beckett finished the translation into French by November 1962 but amended the title...
, and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in "Murder Most English".
Brenda Bruce played P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
's character Aunt Dahlia
Aunt Dahlia
Dahlia Travers is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Bertie Wooster's bonhomous, red-faced Aunt Dahlia. She is much beloved by her nephew, in contrast with her sister, Bertie's Aunt Agatha...
in the 1990s production of Jeeves and Wooster
Jeeves and Wooster
-External links:*—An episode guide to the series, including information about which episodes were adapted from which Wodehouse stories.*—Episode guides, screenshots and quotes from the four series....
with Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
and Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
. Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
story "Paradise Towers
Paradise Towers
Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1987.-Plot:...
", Bea in the rag trade drama Connie, and in the The Riff Raff Element
The Riff Raff Element
The Riff Raff Element was a 1990s British television series written by Debbie Horsfield and directed by Jeremy Ancock, who also directed Dressing for Breakfast and episodes of The Bill and Bergerac....
. In 1964, she also had the important role of Mary Lewis in Nightmare
Nightmare (1964 film)
Nightmare is a 1964 horror/suspense film from Hammer Films. The film was directed by Freddie Francis and written by Hammer Films regular Jimmy Sangster. The British Film Institute has the only 35mm print in the UK.-Plot:...
. In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea
Honey for Tea
Honey for Tea is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 in 1994. Starring Felicity Kendal, it was written by Michael Aitkens. The series was poorly received at the time, receiving a particularly scathing review from Victor Lewis-Smith in the London Evening Standard.-Cast:*Felicity Kendal - Nancy...
, a short-lived sitcom.
Awards
- In 1962 she was given the Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards 1962Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards 1962The 1962 Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards, the United Kingdom's premier television awards ceremony. The awards later became known as the British Academy Television Awards, under which name they are still given.-Winners:*Drama...
. - She was named Best Actress in 1963 by BAFTA British Academy Television Award for Best ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...
.
Filmography
| Film & Television | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1938 | Laugh with Me | Rose Dinwiddy | |
| The Wooing of Anne Hathaway | Katharine Hathaway | ||
| 1943 | Millions Like Us Millions Like Us Millions Like Us is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Eric Portman, Megs Jenkins, and Anne Crawford, was written by Sidney Gilliat, and directed by Gilliat and Frank Launder... |
Brenda | |
| 1945 | They Came to a City They Came to a City They Came to a City is a 1945 British film directed by Basil Dearden adapted from a J. B. Priestley play, starring John Clements, Googie Withers and Raymond Huntley with a cameo from Priestley himself. The plot concerns the experiences of various people coming to their "ideal" city.... |
One of couple on hillside | |
| I Live in Grosvenor Square I Live in Grosvenor Square I Live in Grosvenor Square is a British war film, directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox—a forerunner of his "London films" collaboration with his wife, actress Anna Neagle. The film deploys a tragi-comic plot in a context of US-British wartime co-operation, and displays icons of popular music... |
Girl in Guard's Van | ||
| 1946 | Night Boat to Dublin Night Boat to Dublin Night Boat to Dublin is a 1946 British thriller film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Robert Newton, Raymond Lovell, Guy Middleton, Muriel Pavlow and Herbert Lom.-Plot:... |
Lily Leggett | |
| Piccadilly Incident Piccadilly Incident Piccadilly Incident is a 1946 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Coral Browne, Edward Rigby and Leslie Dwyer. A married woman is believed dead in a shipwreck, but returns home with the Second World War at its height to find her husband remarried.... |
Sally Benton | ||
| I See a Dark Stranger I See a Dark Stranger I See a Dark Stranger is a British 1946 World War II spy film with touches of light comedy, by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard.-Plot:... |
American Waitress | ||
| Carnival | Maudie Chapman | ||
| 1947 | While the Sun Shines While the Sun Shines While the Sun Shines is a 1947 British comedy film directed by Anthony Asquith. It was based on Terrence Rattigan's 1943 play of the same name. -Plot:... |
Mabel Crum | |
| When the Bough Breaks When the Bough Breaks (1947 film) When the Bough Breaks is a 1947 film by Gainsborough Pictures, J. Arthur Rank and Sydney Box Productions. It is an adaptation of an original story-line by Herbert Victor on adoption and the competing ties of one child's birth and foster family.-Cast:... |
Ruby Chapman | ||
| 1948 | My Brother's Keeper My Brother's Keeper (1948 film) My Brother's Keeper is a 1948 British crime film in the form of a convicts-on-the-run chase thriller, directed by Alfred Roome for Gainsborough Pictures. It was the first of only two films directed by Roome during a long career as a film editor... |
Winnie Foreman | |
| 1949 | Marry Me | Brenda Delamere | |
| Don't Ever Leave Me Don't Ever Leave Me Don't Ever Leave Me is a 1949 English romantic comedy film starring Petula Clark, Jimmy Hanley, Hugh Sinclair, Edward Rigby, and Anthony Newley... |
Miss Smith | ||
| 1951 | Two on the Tiles Two on the Tiles -Cast:* Herbert Lom as Ford* Hugh McDermott as Dick Lawson* Brenda Bruce as Janet Lawson* Ingeborg von Kusserow as Madeleine* Humphrey Lestocq as Jimmy Bradley* Armand Guinle as Pierre... |
Janet Lawson | |
| 1953 | The Final Test The Final Test The Final Test is a 1953 British sports film written by Terence Rattigan, directed by Anthony Asquith, and starring Jack Warner, Robert Morley, George Relph and Ray Jackson. A number of leading cricketers also appear including Denis Compton, Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook.-Plot:The film is a comedy... |
Cora | |
| The Motorola Television Hour The Motorola Television Hour The Motorola Television Hour was an hour-long anthology series which alternated bi-weekly with The United States Steel Hour on ABC. The show premiered on November 3, 1953 and was last aired on June 1, 1954. It was sponsored by Motorola.-External links:... |
"Westward the Sun" | ||
| 1954 | Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents | Emily | "Man Who Heard Everything" |
| 1958 | Behind the Mask Behind the Mask (1958 film) Behind the Mask is a 1958 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Bannen and Lionel Jeffries. It portrays the life of a surgeon in a busy hospital.-Cast:... |
Elizabeth Fallon | |
| Law and Disorder Law and Disorder (1958 film) Law and Disorder is a 1958 British comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Michael Redgrave, Robert Morley, Joan Hickson, Lionel Jeffries and John Le Mesurier. It was based on the 1954 novel Smugglers' Circuit by Denys Roberts. The film was started by director Henry Cornelius who died... |
Mary | ||
| "Mary Britten, M.D. | Mary Britten | ||
| 1960 | Peeping Tom Peeping Tom (film) Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur... |
Dora | |
| 1961 | Sunday Night Theatre Sunday Night Theatre Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of plays created by the BBC first in early 1950, and was regularly shown on Sundays until late 1959, when the last play, A Cup of Kindness, was staged... |
May Sommers | "Nearer to Heaven" |
| Sunday Night Theatre Sunday Night Theatre Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of plays created by the BBC first in early 1950, and was regularly shown on Sundays until late 1959, when the last play, A Cup of Kindness, was staged... |
Elaine | "The Wrong Side of the Park" | |
| 1962 | Armchair Theatre Armchair Theatre Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968.... |
"Girl in a Bird Cage" | |
| ITV Play of the Week | Millie Crocker Harris | "A Lily in Little India" | |
| Zero One | Sarah Elkinson | "Stoneface" | |
| The Winter's Tale The Winter's Tale The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W... |
Paulina | ||
| Sunday Night Theatre Sunday Night Theatre Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of plays created by the BBC first in early 1950, and was regularly shown on Sundays until late 1959, when the last play, A Cup of Kindness, was staged... |
Ethel Gibbons | "This Happy Breed" | |
| 1963 | Armchair Theatre Armchair Theatre Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968.... |
"The Monkey and the Mohawk" | |
| Dr. Finlay's Casebook | Bridie Bell | "The Face Saver" | |
| 1964 | Nightmare Nightmare (1964 film) Nightmare is a 1964 horror/suspense film from Hammer Films. The film was directed by Freddie Francis and written by Hammer Films regular Jimmy Sangster. The British Film Institute has the only 35mm print in the UK.-Plot:... |
Mary Lewis | |
| 1965 | The Uncle The Uncle The Uncle is a 1965 British drama film directed by Desmond Davis.-Cast:* Rupert Davies as David Morton* Brenda Bruce as Addie Morton* Robert Duncan as Gus Morton* Ann Lynn as Sally Morton* Christopher Ariss as Tom* Maurice Denham as Mr. Ream... |
Addie Morton | |
| Armchair Theatre Armchair Theatre Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968.... |
Ellen | "The Lodger" | |
| Thirty-Minute Theatre | Pat Pendleton | "Give the Clown His Supper" | |
| 1966 | The Wednesday Play The Wednesday Play The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured... |
Betty Bradshaw | "Way Off Beat" |
| ITV Play of the Week | Millie Crocker Harris | "The Browning Version" | |
| Knock on Any Door | "The First Day of Spring" | ||
| Knock on Any Door | "The Dear Ones" | ||
| 1967 | The Girl The Girl The Girl is a novel by Meridel Le Sueur set during Prohibition and chronicling the development of a young woman from a naive small-town girl into a participant in a bank robbery.... |
Miss Cashcart | |
| The Wednesday Play The Wednesday Play The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured... |
Mollie | "Death of a Teddy Bear" | |
| Softly, Softly Softly, Softly (TV series) Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern - supposedly in the Bristol and Chepstow area of the UK... |
Hilda Berry | "An Eye for an Eye" | |
| 1968 | Sherlock Holmes (1965 TV series) | Saunders | "The Dancing Men" |
| Late Night Horror | Mary Pearl | "William and Mary" | |
| The First Lady | Mary Tunnicliffe | "Mrs. Whatever" | |
| The Gamblers | Gertie | "Give and Take" | |
| 1969 | The Virgin Soldiers The Virgin Soldiers The Virgin Soldiers is a 1966 comic novel by Leslie Thomas, inspired by his own experiences of National Service in the British Army.The novel was turned into a film The Virgin Soldiers in 1969, directed by John Dexter, with a screenplay by the British screenwriter John Hopkins. It starred Hywel... |
Nursing Sister | |
| The Wednesday Play The Wednesday Play The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured... |
Ma | "Happy" | |
| 1971 | A Family at War A Family At War A Family At War is a British drama series that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1972. It was created by John Finch and made by Granada Television for ITV. The director was David Giles.... |
Mrs Thomas | "Happy Returns" |
| Budgie Budgie (TV series) Budgie was a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972.... |
Janey Baib | "Sunset Mansions or Whatever Happened to Janey Baib?" | |
| 1972 | Country Matters | Mrs Holland | "The Mill" |
| Thirty-Minute Theatre | The Wife | "Not Counting the Savages" | |
| The Man from Haven | Mary Balfour | ||
| 1973 | Cheri Cheri Cheri is a given name, and may refer to:* Cheri Blauwet, wheelchair racer* Cheri Dennis , American singer* Cheri DiNovo , Canadian United Church minister and social democratic politician... |
Charlotte | |
| That'll Be the Day That'll Be The Day (film) That'll Be the Day is a 1973 British film starring David Essex and Ringo Starr, written by Ray Connolly and directed by Claude Whatham. It is set in the late '50s/early '60s and was partially filmed on the Isle of Wight. A sequel, Stardust, was released in 1974.-Plot summary:Jim MacLaine's mother... |
Doreen | ||
| Play for Today Play for Today Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted... |
Madge | "Jingle Bells" | |
| 1974 | Bedtime Stories Bedtime Stories (1974 TV series) Bedtime Stories was an anthology series of six plays that were '1974 versions of well loved tales.' The series aired on BBC2 from 3 March 1974 to 7 April 1974. Writers for the series included Alan Plater, Nigel Kneale and Andrew Davies... |
Gertie | "Hansel and Gretel" |
| Dial M for Murder (tv series) | Kath | "Recording Angel" | |
| Alice Through the Looking Glass | The White Queen | ||
| Swallows and Amazons Swallows and Amazons Swallows and Amazons is the first book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome; it was first published in 1930, with the action taking place in the summer of 1929 in the Lake District... |
Mrs Dixon | ||
| 1975 | All Creatures Great and Small All Creatures Great and Small (film) All Creatures Great and Small is a 1975 television film, directed by Claude Whatham, based on the book All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot. The book is a compilation volume, first published in 1972, comprising Herriot's first two novels, If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen... |
Miss Harbottle | |
| 1976 | Ubu roi Ubu Roi Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry, premiered in 1896. It is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. It is the first of three stylised burlesques in which Jarry satirises power, greed, and their evil practices — in particular the propensity of the complacent bourgeois to abuse the... |
Ma Ubu | |
| Crown Court Crown Court (TV series) Crown Court was an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.... |
Angela Stacey | "A Matter of Honour" | |
| 1977 | Murder Most English | Lucy Teatime | |
| Centre Play | Auntie Kathleen | "Auntie Kathleen's Old Clothes" | |
| The Man in the Iron Mask The Man in the Iron Mask (1977 film) The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1977 television film loosely adapted from The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas and presenting several plot similarities with the 1939 film version... |
Queen Anne of Austria | ||
| 1978 | Armchair Thriller Armchair Thriller Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included... |
Sister Elizabeth | "Quiet as a Nun Quiet as a Nun Quiet as a Nun is a thriller novel, written by Antonia Fraser. First published in 1977, it features Fraser's sleuthing heroine Jemima Shore as she revisits the convent where she was schooled following the mysterious death of one of the nuns... " |
| The Devil's Crown The Devil's Crown The Devil's Crown was a BBC television series which dramatised the reigns of three medieval Kings of England: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John.... |
Matilda | ||
| Play for Today Play for Today Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted... |
Mrs Hackett | "A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts" | |
| Play of the Month Play of the Month Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles... |
Lady Bountiful | "The Beaux' Stratagem The Beaux' Stratagem The Beaux' Stratagem is a comedy by George Farquhar, first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in March 1707. In the play, Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times, plan to travel through small towns, entrap young heiresses, steal their money and move on. In the... " |
|
| Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining... |
Aunt Miranda | ||
| 1979 | BBC Television Shakespeare BBC Television Shakespeare The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:... |
Mistress Quickly | "The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, with the life and death of Henry surnamed Hotspur" |
| BBC Television Shakespeare BBC Television Shakespeare The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:... |
Mistress Quickly | "The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, including his death and the coronation of King Henry the Fift" | |
| 1983 | The Mad Death The Mad Death The Mad Death is a television serial made by BBC Scotland. It was filmed in 1981 and transmitted 2 years later in 1983. The programme has only ever been repeated twice; once on BBC in 1985 and again in 1993 on UK Gold... |
Miss Stonecroft | three-part BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff... television serial |
| The Home Front | Mrs Place | ||
| BBC Television Shakespeare BBC Television Shakespeare The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:... |
First Witch | "Macbeth" | |
| Farmers Arms | Mrs Casson | ||
| 1984 | Weekend Playhouse | Margaret | "Winter Break" |
| Crown Court Crown Court (TV series) Crown Court was an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.... |
Angela Stacey | "Oddball" | |
| 1985 | Connie | Bea | |
| Steaming Steaming (1985 film) Steaming is the 1985 release of the final film directed by Joseph Losey. It was adapted from Nell Dunn's play by Patricia Losey and Nell Dunn. It was the last film of actress Diana Dors, who died in 1984. The film was screened out of competition at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.The story centred... |
Mrs Meadows | ||
| 1986 | Screen Two | June Swift | "Time After Time" |
| David Copperfield (1986 TV serial) | Betsy Trotwood | ||
| 1987 | Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior... |
Tilda | "Paradise Towers Paradise Towers Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1987.-Plot:... " |
| The Secret World of Polly Flint | Granny Porter | ||
| London Embassy | Madge Cowrie | "Tomb with a View" | |
| 1988 | The Tenth Man | Madame Mangeot | |
| Little Dorrit Little Dorrit (film) Little Dorrit is a 1988 film adaptation of the novel Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. It was written and directed by Christine Edzard, and produced by John Brabourne and Richard B. Goodwin. The music, by Giuseppe Verdi, was arranged by Michael Sanvoisin.The film stars Derek Jacobi as Arthur... |
Duchess | ||
| Worlds Beyond Worlds Beyond Worlds Beyond was a British television anthology series of supernatural fiction. ITV broadcast 13 episodes from 1986 to 1988. The stories were based on real-life experiences described in archival documents from the Society for Psychical Research. A book was also released to accompany the... |
"Home" | ||
| Menace Unseen | Norma Trisk | ||
| The Return of the Antelope The Return of the Antelope The Return of the Antelope was a UK TV series aired on ITV between 1986 and 1988. It was a children's fantasy series about two English children, circa 1899, who befriend a group of shipwrecked Lilliputians.-Cast:... |
Mrs Henshaw | "Travelling Companions" | |
| 1990 | Jeeves and Wooster Jeeves and Wooster -External links:*—An episode guide to the series, including information about which episodes were adapted from which Wodehouse stories.*—Episode guides, screenshots and quotes from the four series.... |
Aunt Dahlia Travers Aunt Dahlia Dahlia Travers is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Bertie Wooster's bonhomous, red-faced Aunt Dahlia. She is much beloved by her nephew, in contrast with her sister, Bertie's Aunt Agatha... |
"The Hunger Strike", "Brinkley Manor" |
| Bergerac Bergerac (TV series) Bergerac was a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and screened on BBC1, it starred John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" Bergerac was a British television show... |
Karen Markham | "In Love And War" | |
| Back Home | Lady Beatrice Langley | ||
| Screenplay | Therapist | "Antonia and Jane" | |
| Theatre Night | Old woman | "Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death" | |
| Screen Two | June Swift | "Circles of Deceit" | |
| 1991 | The New Statesman The New Statesman The New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time... |
Beryl | "Keeping Mum" |
| Lovejoy Lovejoy Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant... |
Mrs Jaglom | "Bin Diving" | |
| December Bride | Martha Gilmartin | ||
| 4 Play | Sarah | "Finding Sarah" | |
| 1992 | Growing Rich | Mrs Baker | |
| Goodbye Cruel World Goodbye Cruel World (miniseries) Goodbye Cruel World is a 1992 British miniseries starring Sue Johnston, Alun Armstrong and Brenda Bruce. The three part series was aired on BBC One during January 1992 and was aired again in summer 1993... |
Marjory | ||
| Harnessing Peacocks Harnessing Peacocks (film) Harnessing Peacocks is a 1992 British television film directed by James Cellan Jones and starring Serena Scott Thomas, Peter Davison and John Mills... |
Amy Tremayne | ||
| 1993 | Splitting Heirs Splitting Heirs Splitting Heirs is a 1993 British film starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese and Sadie Frost. The film was directed by Robert Young, and features music by Michael Kamen... |
Mrs Bullock | |
| Riders | Granny Maxwell | ||
| The Riff Raff Element The Riff Raff Element The Riff Raff Element was a 1990s British television series written by Debbie Horsfield and directed by Jeremy Ancock, who also directed Dressing for Breakfast and episodes of The Bill and Bergerac.... |
Granny Grogan | ||
| CASUAL+Y Casualty (TV series) Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The... |
Carrie Springett | "The Final Word" | |
| 1994 | Men of the World Men of the World Men of the World was a 1990s BBC One situation comedy which starred David Threlfall and John Simm.-Production details:Written by Daniel Peacock — who also appeared as the character Gilby Watson. — Men of the World was directed by Terry Kinane and produced for Alomo Productions by Laurence Marks,... |
Mrs Daff | |
| Honey for Tea Honey for Tea Honey for Tea is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 in 1994. Starring Felicity Kendal, it was written by Michael Aitkens. The series was poorly received at the time, receiving a particularly scathing review from Victor Lewis-Smith in the London Evening Standard.-Cast:*Felicity Kendal - Nancy... |
Mary Harris | ||
| 1995 | Performance | Grandmother | "The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd" |
| 1996 | The Vet | Kath Paley | "Stormy Weather" |
Theatre
| Stage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Play | Role | Notes |
| 1962 | Happy Days Happy Days (play) Happy Days is a play in two acts, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. He began the play on 8 October 1960 and it was completed on 14 May 1961. Beckett finished the translation into French by November 1962 but amended the title... |
Winnie | Royal Court Theatre Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre... |
| Woman in a Dressing Gown | The Vaudeville Theatre | ||
| 1967 | Little Murders Little Murders Little Murders is a 1971 black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd, directed by Alan Arkin. It is the story of a girl, Patsy , who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred , to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages... |
Aldwych Theatre Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:... |
|
| 1970 | The Balcony The Balcony The Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and... |
Irma | Aldwych Theatre Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:... |
Radio
| Radio | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Play | Role | Notes |
| Too Long an Autumn | |||
| 1965 | Host Planet Earth Host Planet Earth Host Planet Earth was a BBC radio serial consisting of six half-hour episodes which were originally broadcast in 1965. It details the course of a strange disease which first affects scientists working on a British rocketry programme... |
Clare Stewart | BBC Radio BBC Radio BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company... |
| 1983 | When the Wind Blows When the Wind Blows When the Wind Blows is a 1982 graphic novel, by British artist Raymond Briggs, that shows a nuclear attack on Britain by the Soviet Union from the viewpoint of a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs. The book was later made into an animated film.-Plot:... |
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the... |
|