Jean Marsh

 

Jean Marsh 

† July 31 1934 – April 13 2025

Well, yes, another not-so-unknown face. In fact, if you were watching television in the 1970s, the image at the top of this post will be very recognisable, almost iconic. 'Upstairs, Downstairs' was an award-winning television sensation, and Jean Marsh was its co-creator and star, in the role of put-upon housemaid, Rose Buck. A precursor to, and undoubted influence on, 'Downton Abbey' and other period social dramas, it was a massive hit in the UK and abroad, particularly on PBS in America. Although it helped lift her and many of her fellow cast-members to stardom, (Anthony Andrews, Pauline Collins and Jon Alderton for example), she was not a producer of the programme and received only a small residual payment for developing the original concept with fellow actress Eileen Atkins.

Just about recognisable in this press shot from the Laurence Olivier 
movie for television, 'The Moon & Sixpence' (1959)

Before 'Upstairs, Downstairs', Jean Marsh had been a successful actress as a child and starlet. Her elegant figure and pert, yet slightly disconcerting, good looks led to her appearing in several films in the '50s and early '60s, such as 'The Rebel' (1961) - as one of the Juliette Greco-clone beatniks, and as a South Seas beauty in 'The Moon & Sixpence (1959) with Lawrence Olivier. She also crossed the Atlantic to play a uncanny companion android in an excellent episode of 'The Twilight Zone', 'The Lonely'.            

As Alicia the realistic robot, a moral dilemma for Jack Warden
in a classic episode of 'The Twilight Zone' from 1959    

As the '60s progressed Marsh's sophisticated style was in demand for the new wave of slick spy and cop shows of the era, including 'Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre', 'Danger Man', 'The Saint', 'Department S', 'Adam Adamant Lives!' and another trip over the ocean to appear in NBC's 'I Spy'. She also appeared in the increasingly popular 'Doctor Who', first in the crusades adventure 'The Knight Of Jaffa', and later as quasi-companion Sara Kingdom. She would make a further return as sorceress Morgaine in the 1989 story, 'Battlefield'. (Trivia: In real life, she was married to the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, from 1955-1960.)    

As Sara Kingdom in mid-'60s 'Doctor Who',
she would return in another role in the '80s   

The '70s, we now know, was the decade of 'Upstairs, Downstairs' and it's enormous popularity and success. This parlayed into a plethora of higher profile roles for Jean Marsh. There's Hichcock's 'Frenzy' (1972) and she has a shrilly neurotic performance in the schlocker 'Dark Places' (1973) with its surprisingly starry cast of Joan Collins, Christopher Lee, Robert Hardy, Jane Birkin and Herbert Lom. And then there's 'The Eagle Has Landed' (1976), a proper star-studded wartime caper, with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. 

In an episode of 'UFO'

By the '80s Jean Marsh was much in demand on both sides of the Atlantic. Hollywood beckoned with a run of evil-queen roles that begins with Mombi the Witch in 'Return To Oz' (1985), Bavmorda in 'Willow' (1988) and Morgana in 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' (1989), while the US small screen saw her in episodes of 'Hawaii 5-0', The Waltons' and 'The Love Boat', with a regular role in the TV '9 to 5'. 

More UK productions feature as we move into the '90s and 2000s: the villainous Dr Culex in the rebooted 'Tomorrow People'; a return to the Who-niverse in 'An Adventure In Space And Time'; classic serials 'The Mayor Of Casterbridge' and (the BBC 2008) 'Sense & Sensibility'; and as the portmanteau ghost of all Henry VIII's wives in 'Monarch' with TP McKenna.

As Mrs Ferrars in 'Sense & Sensibility'

Sadly, a mild stroke in 2011 affected her ability to work. Although not completely unable to act, she was only able to appear in a few scenes of the new 1930s-set 'Upstairs, Downstairs', which also had the misfortune to coincide with its mega-budget clone 'Downton Abbey'.         

Jean Marsh-imdb

Roy Evans

Roy Evans: 

With his hangdog demeanour and baleful gaze, we seem to often see Roy Evans in either roles of brooding menace or slight gormlessness. He's a minor Doctor Who favourite, having appeared in several stories: as the sinister razor-toothed Trantis from the long 1965 adventure 'The Dalek's Master Plan', and two Pertwee-era classics, 'The Green Death' and 'The Monster Of Peladon'.      

Roy Evans as Trantis in the 1965 'Dr Who'
story, 'The Daleks' Master Plan'

A skim through his film roles shows up a lot of incidental characters, the sort that appear in the credits as 'coachman', 'tall undertaker', 'sewerman', blind beggar', etc, but he's been in some interesting productions. He's in a lot of cult horror: 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' (1967), The Blood Beast Terror' (1968),'The House That Dripped Blood' (1971), and 'Dr Jeckyll & Sister Hyde' (1971). And in the cult favourite 'Psychomania' (1973), he's the unfortunate motorist who first encounters Nicky Henson's resurrected ton-up zombie as he roars out of his stone-circle grave. On the lighter side, he shows up in  'Oliver!' (1968) - he plays one of the workhouse inmates chasing Oliver around the dining hall after he asks for more - and he's in the Albert Finney 'Scrooge' (1970), and interesting bigger budget fare like the space western 'Moon Two Zero' (1969), 'Jabberwocky' (1977), 'The Elephant Man' (1980) and 'The Company Of Wolves' (1984).     

In 'Dr Who: The Green Death'  

Television work has included semi-classic stuff ranging from 'Doctor Who', 'Minder', 'The Protectors', 'Return Of The Saint', 'Budgie', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'The Changes', 'Cribb', 'Blakes 7' and David Bowie's 'Baal', to better kids' programmes such as 'Dramarama', 'Worzel Gummidge' and er, 'Here Come The Double Deckers'. Comedy appearances include: 'The Black Adder', 'Murder Most Horrid', 'Only Fools And Horses', as well as popular dramas such as 'Porterhouse Blue', 'Poldark', 'Secret Army', 'Campion' and the 1977 TV adaptation of 'Treasure Island'.     

Spooked by undead motorbike noises in 'Psychomania' (1973) 

In another cult classic, 'The Blood Beast Terror' (1968)

All round, an interesting CV. He seems to be retired since the early 2000s, but there's a good chance of spotting him in something from that long back catalogue.   

Roy Evans-imdb

Jennifer Daniel

Jennifer Daniel:

† May 23 1936 – Aug 16 2017

In the era of the dolly-bird actress, Jennifer Daniel radiated a seriousness and intensity that set her aside from other attractive blondes of the period. She was often cast in roles in thrillers and horrors that required a lot more reaction to disquieting situations and creeping paranoia than swinging a plastic bag down fun-loving, fancy-free Carnaby Street.

Early television roles included literary fare such as her portrayal of Ophelia in the 1961 ITV version of 'Hamlet' opposite Barry Foster, and as Dolly Varden in the previous year's 'Barnaby Rudge'. Her dignified good looks also found her playing Beauty in 'Beauty and the Beast' and Lady Edith in 'Richard the Lionheart'. As the '60s rolled on, there were more cop shows and ITC action series like the almost forgotten 'Ghost Squad' as well as 'Gideon's Way', 'Adam Adamant Lives!' and 'The Mask of Janus' with her then-husband Dinsdale Landen. She was also the female lead in the Francis Durbridge-penned detective serial, 'A Man Called Harry Brent' of which nothing seems to have survived*.


In the 'Thriller' episode 'Spell of Evil'

The British film industry's mini-boom of the '60s saw her appear in Hammer favourites like 'The Kiss of the Vampire' (1963) and 'The Reptile' (1966) in which she represented the opposite of her sensually dangerous co-star Jacqueline Pearce. As often seems to be the case with Hammer's female stars, a long period in the film wilderness followed, and perhaps persists, despite recent roles in the Juliette Binoche 'Wuthering Heights' (1992) and the film version of Ray Cooney's farce 'Run for Your Wife' (2012) with (shudder) Danny Dyer and Denise van Outen.

As Mrs Lennox, bewildered by Hyacinth in 'Keeping Up Appearances'.

As the '60s gave way to the '70s, a slew of middlebrow and mid-table TV appearances came and went, including: 'Doomwatch', 'Softly, Softly'-spinoff 'Barlow', 'Duchess of Duke Street', the interesting boarding-house drama 'Rooms', and the RF Delderfield's wartime saga 'People Like Us'. Less prestigious were her regular role in the medical soap 'General Hospital' and hectic kid's favourite 'Here Come the Double Deckers!'

More recently she's been seen in the Customs & Excise drama 'The Collectors', 'Keeing Up Appearances' and 'Rumpole of the Bailey'. She still seems to be working and I'm surprised she hasn't been snapped up by the 'Game of Thrones' or 'Downton Abbey' machines for her diamond-edged gravitas. Maybe that will come. 

Jennifer Daniel - imdb

(* update, Feb 2023, these stories are available on DVD. See comments below.)