Liz Crowther

Liz Crowther:

Daughter of the late TV personality and presenter Leslie Crowther - but not the one that married Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy - Liz Crowther is an actress, albeit one who has generally concentrated on the stage. She has been a member of the RSC and involved with several theatre projects over the years, but has still found time to appear in a number of TV series.

In 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', a 1967 production
over ten episodes, almost all of which are now lost.

As a child she appeared as Lucy in the 1967 ITV production of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' and the completely lost 'Queen Street Gang', but after studying drama in London and Paris she embarked on a career focused on the stage. She has nevertheless been seen in a number of very popular shows, including some longer stints as a main character. For example, she was Annie Hart, the matriarch in Channel 5's attempt to take on the soap opera market, although her character was written out in a reboot by notorious soap hatchet-man Brian Park.   

In the 1983 BBC production of 'Mansfield Park', playing Julia Bertram

As Sergeant Jane Kendall in 'The Bill'

She was also a regular in 'The Bill', 'London's Burning', 'Growing Pains', 'Doctors' and 'Shoestring', as well as making many other one-off drama appearances in the likes of 'Miss Marple', 'Lewis', 'The Cost Of Loving', 'A Year In Provence', 'Bergerac', 'Holby City' and  'EastEnders'.   

As annoying English neighbour Jill, in 'French Fields'

In a comedy vein, you'll see her in 'The Comic Strip presents: Funseekers', 'French Fields', and the flop supermarket sitcom 'Tripper's Day' with Leonard Rossiter, which became the even floppier 'Slinger's Day' with Bruce Forsyth after Rossiter's death.  

'Growing Pains' with Ray Brooks

Definitely a familiar face, perhaps all the more so for the faint family resemblance to her late father, and a talented actor who deserves to be better recognised. 

Liz Crowther-imdb       

Janet Henfrey

Janet Henfrey:

With her rather severe features - somewhere between Edith Sitwell and Geoffrey Bayldon - Janet Henfrey has been called on to play forbidding schoolmarms and formidable aristocrats, although she also has a nice line in charming English eccentricity. You may remember her from the schoolroom flashbacks in Dennis Potter's 'The Singing Detective', or have seen her quite recently in 'Dr Who' or 'Toast Of London'. 

Another scary Dennis Potter schoolteacher. This one from
'Stand Up Nigel Barton', a BBC Wednesday Play from 1965

She has a long association with the RSC and the Oxford Playhouse and her TV and film appearances were relatively sparsely distributed in the period from the early '60s until the early '80s. TV work has seen a variety of period dramas from 'Silas Marner' to 'Tipping The Velvet', and lots of Dickens adaptations. Lighter drama and comedy jobs include 'Jeeves & Wooster', 'Boon', 'Lovejoy', 'Father Brown', 'Agatha Christie's Marple', and a regular turn in 'As Time Goes By' with Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer.   

Less than a second to live... In the 2014 'Dr Who'
episode 'Mummy On The Orient Express' 

Film appearances include 'Reds' (1981), 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' (1989), 'The Man Who Knew Too Little (1998), 'Les Miserables' (1998), 'Metamorphosis' (2012), and her earliest role, in Tommy Steele's 'It's All Happening' (1963). 

As girls' school headmistress, Miss Mapleton, extracting Bertie from
the police station in 'Jeeves & Wooster', thanks to Jeeves's intervention  

With Benjamin Whitrow and Matt Berry in 'Toast Of London'

She has appeared in a substantial number of kids' shows, such as 'Chocky', 'Simon & The Witch', 'Mr Majeika', 'The Famous Five', 'The Worst Witch' and 'Mike & Angelo'. She also has the distinction of having been in two Dr Who stories, the Sylveste McCoy era 'Curse of Fenric' and the Peter Capaldi episode 'Mummy On The Orient Express.

Looking a bit more contemporary in the 1988 BBC
children's show 'Simon & The Witch'.

Janet Henfrey-imdb

Valerie Lilley

Valerie Lilley: 

Joan Littlewood’s Arts Workshop in London was a groundbreaking theatre in the early sixties, taking talented people from far outside the traditional drama-school system and setting them on careers on the stage. Northern Irish actress Valerie Lilley passed through those doors and worked with a number of budding actors including Stephen Rea.

After a few small roles on TV, she got a big break with Stewart Parker’s 'Iris in the Traffic, Ruby in the Rain', starring Frances Tomelty. Also in 1982, Lilley appeared in two other televised plays, 'Potato Head Blues' and the troubles rooted 'Billy Boy' with 'Z-Cars' star James Ellis. Lilley was also a regular in ITV's ill-fated soap opera 'Albion Market'. She went on to appear in a wide variety of television, from 'Minder', the 2009 adaptation of 'Emma' and 'Hetty Wainthrop Investigates', to 'Grange Hill', 'The Famous Five' and 'The Catherine Tate Show'.



In the 1983 Agatha Christie adaptation 'The Man in the Mist' 

In the young women offenders drama  'Scrubbers' (1983)

Film work has included 'Scrubbers' (1982), 'Ascendancy (1983), 'Priest' (1994), and 'The Terence Davies Trilogy' (1983). 

Her biggest recent TV role has been as Patty Croker in the Mancunian drama 'Shameless', but she was also excellent in my very good friend Vic Templar's 2006 radio play 'Good Morning Mr Borg' about the long hot summer of 1976 and a Wimbledon Championship played out in a suburban back garden.


Valerie Lilley - imdb