Moira Foot

Moira Foot: 

Very tall and slender, with a charmingly toothy smile and an eye-catching embonpoint, Moira Foot is one of the troupe of dollybird actresses who populated the fantasy landscape of the '70s: either the glory days of light entertainment or the nadir of casual universal sexism, depending on your viewpoint. A quick glance at her credits (that will do, Mr Lucas) immediately conjures another age and another set of comedy values from a problematic canon: 'The Benny Hill Show', 'The Dick Emery Show', the movie of 'On The Buses' (1972), 'Are You Being Served?', and 'Doctor At Large'.     

Benny Hill, as 'World Of Sport's Dickie Davies, delivers a line
that almost certainly has something to do with Bristol City.   

Getting the benefit of George Layton's best bedside
manner in 'Doctor At Large'. 

Her father, Alistair Foot, was a comedy writer and one of the authors of the great touchstone of British theatrical farce, 'No Sex Please, We're British', so perhaps it's not surprising that the attractive young actress should find her way into this particular stream of light entertainment. Her first appearances were in the comedies of Ronnie Barker, well-known for his obsession with saucy postcard humour - a genre from which the cartoonishly glamorous Miss Foot seems to have miraculously stepped. She appears as Effie the maid in 'Hark At Barker' and the follow-up 'His Lordship Entertains', in which she is the frequent cause of Lord Rustless's popped monocle.   

Effie the maid has been making (surprise surprise) some dumplings,
in which Ronnie Barker naturally takes a keen interest    

In addition to the comedy shows and skits, there were a few brief, decorative appearances in dramas, such as 'Quiller' and 'The New Avengers', and other oddments, like the sleuth panel game 'Whodunnit' and a made-for-America musical evening with Jackie Gleason and Julie Andrews. 

As Denise of the Resistance in the later episodes of 'Allo Allo'

Her most recent role was in the fifth series of 'Allo Allo' where she turns up as René's childhood sweetheart, now a member of the Resistance. The show was still very popular, even if it had long since exhausted it's original premise, and she gives an enthusiastic performance at what must have been rather a flat point in the programme's long history. 
                   

Ready to impress the driving examiner - if it were anyone
but Dick Emery's Hello Honky Tonks that is... 

Benny Hill sight gag No. 235. Short bald Jackie Wright is the man
forgetting bus queue etiquette next to the statuesque Moira Foot    

That was 1988, seemingly her last TV appearances for the time being, but she'll certainly be seared into the memories of many for her iconic comedy show legacy. She was understandably sought after by those elder statesmen of British vaudeville and nudge-nudge humour, and whether it was humiliating Benny Hill on a disco dance floor or helping young Mr Grace with his tablets, she played the gag. It was another time. 

Moira Foot-imdb

Patricia Brake

Patricia Brake:

† Jun 25 1942 – May 28 2022

A British perennial with that winning mix of dolly-bird prettiness and an ear for comic dialogue, Patricia Brake might be familiar from the sitcom classic 'Porridge' as Fletcher's daughter Ingrid. She made an impression in one episode for her bra-less visit to Slade Prison, and later when she proves that she is wearing a bra by lifting her top up. She also appeared in the spin-off series 'Going Straight', but despite Barker and Beckinsale's best efforts the magic was noticeably absent.

 

In the forgotten US TV comedy 'The Ugliest Girl in Town'

As a sweet young British actress, she had been cast in the strange 1968 ABC sitcom, 'The Ugliest Girl in Town', the American network's attempt to tap into the swinging London phenomenon with Peter Kastner in drag following a London model over the pond. I don't think it was ever shown in the UK and it has come high in some 'worst TV shows of all time' lists, none of which is the fault of Patricia Brake who is glamorous and fun in it.

 

 

As Ingrid in 'Going Straight' with Ronnie Barker

 Very busy throughout the '60s and '70s, she appeared in dramas ranging from 'Lorna Doone' and 'Nicholas Nickleby' to the now lost David Hemmings serial 'Home Tonight' and 'No Hiding Place'. On the comedy front, she's in some you don't hear much about these days like 'Second Time Around' and 'Forget Me Not', as well as the more memorable; 'A Sharp Intake of Breath', 'Life Begins at Forty', the 1979 reboot of 'The Glums' and the aforementioned 'Porridge' and 'Going Straight'. I'm also intrigued by the sound of 'Mann's Best Friends' from 1985, with an impressive cast that features Fulton McKay, Bernard Bresslaw and Liz Smith, but I can't find anything much out about it.      



As Eth in the 1979 TV revival of the '50s favourite 'The Glums'.

Ian Lavender plays her ever-gormless beloved, Ron 

As the '80s progressed, she moved toward soap opera and potboiler dramas with roles in 'Emmerdale', 'EastEnders' and 'Coronation Street' (as Mike Baldwin's old flame/sister-in-law), also getting one of the main parts in the BBC's shortlived 'Eldorado'. After that, there's the predictable round of 'Midsomer Murders', 'Casualty', 'Holby City', 'Doctors' and 'The Bill', but also 'The Bounder'.

In a 2005 episode of 'Coronation Street' with Johnny Briggs

Movie roles include the oddball Peter Sellers piece 'The Optimists of Nine Elms' (1973) and the wrinkly romance 'Love/Loss' (2010). In  'My Lover My Son' (1970), she played the girlfriend of an unusually timid Dennis Waterman (she seems more comfortable with her fully nude scenes than Dennis does in his y-fronts), who is trying to escape the cloying influence of his mother, played by Romy Schneider. 

 

    

Dennis Waterman needs a bit of encouragement

for a change in 'My Lover My Son' (1970)

Patricia Brake-imdb

Josephine Tewson

Josephine Tewson:

† Feb 26 1931 – Aug 18 2022

A charming perennial of British TV comedy, Josephine Tewson is probably most easily spotted these days in the perpetual repeats of 'Keeping Up Appearances', in which she plays the sensitive and genteel Elizabeth, driven to the edge of neurotic despair by her appalling social-climbing neighbour.

In an episode of  'The Champions'

Her early career led from RADA to Bristol rep in the late '50s, where she met and married Leonard Rossiter in 1959, although they divorced in 1961. The first half of the '60s saw her in a few serials and television plays, but by the end of the decade she had carved a niche playing opposite comedians. Charlie Drake, Dick Emery, Jimmy Tarbuck, satire-period David Frost and, above all, Ronnie Barker, cast her regularly in their TV series, utilising her effortless ability to play everything from glamorous countesses to goggling charladies    

Soon to be bumped off by dashing serial killer Michael Jayston in the
Brian Clemens 'Thriller' episode, 'A Coffin for the Bride'.

The '70s and '80s saw her make her mark in sitcom-land, the better of those being the splendidly cynical 'Shelley' with Hywel Bennett, and old pal Ronnie Barker's curiously understated period piece 'Clarence'. Some of the less splendid include 'Terry & June', 'No Appointment Necessary' (something of a flop, despite starring Roy Kinnear), and the pitiful 'Odd Man Out' with John Inman as the hapless boss of a seaside rock factory. Fortunately, Hyacinth and her endless gaffes were just around the corner. The geriatric japes of 'Last of the Summer Wine' have been a more recent development, with a regular role as Miss Davenport the librarian. 

Not sure what to make of Ronnie Barker's coarse but sincere
removals man in the first episode of 'Clarence'.

There are a couple of small roles in interesting, if not particularly funny, comedy films on her CV too. She's in the now generally forgotten Cleese and Chapman effort 'The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It' (1977), and she plays a nun of the Order of St Beryl, as Pete and Dud milk their old gag in the misfiring Holmes spoof 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (1978).   

Josephine Tewson - imdb

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates: 

† June 16, 1929 - January 21, 2015

Perhaps the ultimate sitcom housewife, an unobtrusive foil to comic turns from the late great Leonard Rossiter in 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' and, to a lesser extent, Robert Gillespie in 'Keep it in the Family'. Pauline Yates became something of a middle aged pin-up during the '70s (unbelievably, she was born in 1929) for her combination of sweet wifely loyalty and brisk, unflappable sexiness.   

In 'The Strange Report'

Earlier TV includes 'Emergency Ward 10' and 'My Honourable Mrs' – an unlamented sitcom with Derek Nimmo as a man whose wife enters Parliament. Ha ha, imagine that. She also had the lead role in 'Harriet's Back in Town', a daytime soap made by Thames TV back in the early '70s.  She was in some old favourites of the time, like 'Bootsie and Snudge', 'The Strange Report', 'The Human Jungle', 'Maigret', and some comedy like 'Hark at Barker' and 'Hancock' ('The Eye-Witness').

About to get the heave-ho from Dirk Bogarde in favour of
Julie Christie in 'Darling' (1965)

In the '80s and '90s she was seen in 'Rumpole' and the usual second-string dramas of 'Casualty', 'Kavanagh QC' and 'Doctors' as well as the strangely redundant post-Leonard Rossiter series 'The Legacy of Reginald Perrin' in 1996, in which the original cast members seem to wander aimlessly around in search of their lost star.  

'Harriet's Back in Town' with William Russell

There were a few film roles,  but the only notable production was 'Darling' (1965). Pauline Yates's finest professional moments have almost all been on the small screen and almost all in 'Reggie Perrin', but it's a measure of that programme's lasting appeal that she is such a well-loved actress. In real life, her husband was the respected actor Donald Churchill, who died in 1991, and their daughter Jemma Churchill is also an actress. 

Update Jan 2015: Sad to hear that Pauline Yates died earlier this week.  

Pauline Yates-imdb

Peter Vaughan

Peter Vaughan:
† Apr 4 1923 – Dec 6 2016

A big man, and something of a giant in the realm of British TV comedy and drama. Emanating an aura of cunning and dead-eyed menace, he is part of the collective consciousness as 'genial' Harry Grout, the Mr Big of Slade Prison in the classic sitcom 'Porridge', forever asking Ronnie Barker's wily, but good-natured Fletcher to run him some little errand. When not in prison blues, he was also Cheryl's dad in 'Citizen Smith' and one of the Fox clan in the tough 1980 drama series 'Fox'.

His acting career stretches back to the mid-'50s and traces a line through most of the cult TV output of the following decades: 'The Saint', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'Man In A Suitcase', 'The Avengers', 'The Strange Report', and 'The Protectors'. He also lent his innate gravitas and looming presence to some lavish and heavyweight dramas, such as playing Bill Sikes in an early '60s 'Oliver Twist';  the BBC's 1967 'Great Expectations' (playing Jaggers - the late Ronald Lacey played Orlick); a memorable Long John Silver in 'Treasure Island', and the ruthlessly unprincipled Horace Dorrington in 'The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'. Coming up to date, he is to be seen in stuff ranging from 'Our Friends in The North' to 'Lark Rise to Candleford' and 'Game of Thrones'.

(pictured above in 'The Avengers' episode 'My Wildest Dream'; and in 'The Gold Robbers' with a teenaged Sally Thomsett)

'Eyewitness' (1970) 

In the cinema, notable titles include: 'Village of the Damned' (1960), 'Make Mine Mink' (1960), 'The Punch and Judy Man' (1963), 'Fanatic' - aka 'Die, Die My Darling' (1965), the Boulting brothers comedy 'Rotten to the Core' (1965), 'Straw Dogs' (1971), Ken Russell's 'Savage Messiah' (1972), and Terry Gilliam's 'Time Bandits' (1981) and 'Brazil' (1985).

†Edit: Sad to hear today that the wonderful Peter Vaughan has died. Tue 6th Dec 2016.

Peter Vaughan - imdb profile