Madge Hindle

Madge Hindle was born in 1938 in Blackburn. She has worked several times in the dramas of Alan Bennett including “On the Margin”, “Sunset Across the Bay” and “Intensive Care”. She starred in “Coronation Streeas Renee Roberts, wife of Alf but in 1980 was written out in a car accident. She has also been in the tv series “Porridge”.

“Wikipedia” entry:

Hindle’s big break came when her good friend, playwright Alan Bennett, asked her to appear in his 1966 BBC comedy series On the Margin.^[1]

From 1968 to 1973, she played the role of Lily Tattersall on the series Nearest and Dearest. When the series’ director, Bill Podmore, took over as producer of Coronation Street, he thought of her when he created the role of the feisty shopkeeper, Renee Bradshaw.^[2]

Hindle joined the cast as Renee Bradshaw in 1976. In 1978, Renee was married to the character Alf Roberts (played by Bryan Mosley). However, in 1980, Renee was killed when her car was struck by a lorry. Hindle remains philosophical about her character’s death in Coronation Street, saying that if they had to write her out, at least they killed her, which meant she would never be tempted to return, thus risking typecasting.

In 1972 she appeared on This Is Your Life as a guest for her Nearest and Dearest co-star, fellow Lancashire actress Hylda Baker.

She has appeared in two of Alan Bennett‘s television plays: Sunset Across the Bay (1975) and Intensive Care (1982). She has worked in several productions with Ronnie Barker, playing the governor’s secretary Mrs Hesketh in the BBC sitcom Porridge and also made two appearances in Barker’s other sitcom Open All Hours. She co-starred with Barker again in The Two Ronnies’ 1982 almost-silent TV film By the Sea.

Most recently, Hindle had a recurring role alongside Gwen Taylor in the 1990s sitcom Barbara.^[3] She played the role until 2003.

In addition to being an actress, Hindle was Mayoress of Blackburn when her mother became Mayor.

Her daughter, Charlotte Hindle, rose to prominence in the 1980s as a presenter on the Saturday morning children’s show Get Fresh.

Hindle is also the Honorary Vice-President of Blackburn Arts Club, an amateur dramatic society. Along with her husband Michael, she appeared in many productions for the club during the 1960s.

She now lives, with her husband Michael, near Settle in North Yorkshire, in a converted farmhouse that she originally bought with good friend Russell Harty.

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Jean Anderson was born in 1907 in Eastbourne. Her films include “Bond Street” in 1948, “White Corridors”, “The |Kidnappers” and “Robbery Under Arms”. She had two very successful television series “The Brothers” and “Tenko”. She died in 2001 at the age of 93.

“The Guardian” obituary:

Eric Shorter
The Guardian, Thursday 5 April 2001 16.14 BST

Tipsy aunts, querulous matrons, fearsome matriarchs, plucky parents, condescending aristocrats, taciturn chaperones, tight-lipped nannies, crusty aunts, gossipy grandmas, suspicious wives, elderly gamblers, theatrical dames, snooty dowagers, nosy spinsters and rural snobs – Jean Anderson, who has died aged 93, had a way of giving to each a singular presence, vitality, dignity and truth.

Yet, as a character actress of her quality, she had had far fewer opportunities than a star or leading performer to establish herself in our imagination, especially in the kind of depth which the musically trained Anderson liked to plumb. In the late 1920s, it was hard for a serious-minded young actress who was not arrestingly pretty to get a training in the classics, which was the only way to get on without backstage influence.

Born in Eastbourne of a Scottish family, she grew up in Guildford. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, her first professional role was on a 50-week tour of Many Waters, alongside a fellow RADA student, Robert Morley. After a stint in rep at Cambridge, where the director was Peter Powell, whom she later married, she landed the part of the mother in an Irish revival by the Gate Theatre Company, Dublin, of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! which visited the West End in 1936. When the company returned to Dublin, Anderson joined it for three years as leading lady.

In the 1940s, Anderson found herself working at London’s Players Theatre Club, then in King Street, Covent Garden, now under Charing Cross Station, where so many other theatrical luminaries (notably Peter Ustinov) first got their footing in the theatre. Anderson enjoyed the atmosphere, camaraderie and hard work of the so-called Late Joys and had a gift for the kind of satirical, nostalgic material which continues to be sung in tribute to the Victorian music hall. She became so popular that during the absence of Leonard Sachs, the legendary founder and co-director with Peter Godfrey of the Players, she proved a most stirring substitute.

Whether in the West End or provinces, or with the newly subsidised National Theatre or Royal Shakespeare Company, she made her mark, however briefly, in plays by Rattigan or Fry, Chekhov or Ibsen, Ben Travers or EM Forster, Somerset Maugham or William Douglas Home, Jean-Jacques Bernard or Frank Wedekind – and in particular as Mme Rosamunde in Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the RSC, in which she went to Broadway (1986).

Was there a likelier Charley’s Aunt (for the same company) or a haughtier dowager in Travers’ Corkers End (at Guildford) or a funnier Dame Maud Gosport (looming but listing squiffily) in Rattigan’s send-up of actor-managers, Harlequinade? They were typical examples of her familiar character work.

Anderson’s quiet authority, vocal poise and invisible technique saw her safely through countless parts on stage, screen and television. In the 1950s and 1960s she juggled with all three mediums simultaneously, lending her dependably distinctive gallery of cousins, aunts, mothers, nurses, policewomen, social workers, teachers and officials to the big screen in A Town Like Alice, Heart of a Child, Lucky Jim, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Spare the Rod, The Inspector, Half a Sixpence, Country Dance and The Lady Van ishes, as well as to the theatre and television.

It was the small screen, however, which seemed to bring out the best in her art; perhaps because it had more scope for the kind of kindly if sometimes curt characterisation to which Anderson brought such a compelling restraint. My favourites are still the stoic Mum in The Railway Children, the awful matriarch in The Brothers, the series about a road haulage company, and the eccentric old gambler in Trainer.

In its elegance, observation, timing and emotional insight, another gem was Molly Cowper, the ageing English social snob in Julian Mitchell’s Survival of the Fittest. Herself as old as the 80-year-old character, Anderson brought out all the private suffering, loneliness, intransigence and maternal possessiveness of an old lady who refused to acknowledge reality.

Among scores of other “types” which she turned into individuals for the small screen were Jocelyn Holbrook in Tenko, the series about the experiences of European women interned by Japanese militia, Mrs Fortescue in Keeping Up Appearances, Mrs Spencer Ewell in House of Elliot, Dr Goldrup in GBH, Lady Anne in Do Not Disturb, the Dowager in Circles of Deceit, Belle in Campion, Great Aunt Anne in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, Jo March in Little Women, and Frau Buddenbrook in Buddenbrooks. Her final television role came last year in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, back at the Gate Theatre, Dublin.

Her marriage to Peter Powell ended in divorce. They had one daughter, Aude Powell, a theatre agent.

• Mary Jean Heriot Anderson, actress, born December 12 1907; died April 1 2001.

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Jennifer Wilson was born in 1932 in London. She made her television debut in 1957. She is best known for her role as Jennifer Hammond on BBC’s drama “The Brothers” which ran from 1972 until 1976. Ms Wilson died in 2022.

Telegraph obituary in 2022.

Jennifer Wilson, actress best remembered as one of the stars of the 1970s haulage-firm saga The Brothers – obituary

As Jennifer Kingsley, secretary and ‘other woman’, she sent a weekly frisson through the stolid world of a family business in the hit series

ByTelegraph Obituaries5 April 2022 • 2:13pm

Jennifer Wilson as Jennifer (née Kingsley) and Patrick O'Connell as Edward Hammond, collecting their adopted baby from the maternity home in Jennifer's Baby, an episode of The Brothers screened on BBC One in 1975 — Jennifer Wilson as Jennifer (née Kingsley) and Patrick O’Connell as Edward Hammond, collecting their adopted baby from the maternity home in Jennifer’s Baby, an episode of The Brothers screened on BBC One in 1975 CREDIT: John Green/BBC

Jennifer Wilson, the actress, who has died aged 89, was best known on television for her role in The Brothers, a drama saga about a feuding family business that became a popular fixture on BBC One in the 1970s.

As Jennifer Kingsley, secretary and mistress to the eponymous brothers’ father, Jennifer Wilson sent a weekly frisson through the stolid world of freight haulage portrayed in what became known as the BBC’s “soap in disguise”.

Launched in 1972, initially on Friday nights but quickly switching to Sundays, The Brothers was an instant hit and ran for seven seasons over four years, propelled in part by the manipulative women, including Jennifer Kingsley.

She had been a beneficiary in the will of Robert Hammond, founder of Hammond Transport, that bound his three sons to continuing the family business on equal terms with his former mistress.

Jennifer Wilson in the ITV
Play of the Week, The Week-Enders, 1962 — Jennifer Wilson in the ITV Play of the Week, The Week-Enders, 1962 CREDIT: ITV/Shutterstock

Accustomed to being cast as the “other woman”, Jennifer Wilson brought to the role a scandalously suspect background. Not only had Jennifer Kingsley been having an affair with the now deceased Robert Hammond, but she had borne him an illegitimate daughter. When she was left a share in the family business, Hammond’s crotchety widow (Jean Anderson) never accepted her.

Kingsley eventually married the eldest son, Edward (Glyn Owen in the first season, followed by Patrick O’Connell for the remaining six).

Jennifer Wilson was born on April 25 1932 at Chigwell, Essex, and left school intending to be a dress designer. While studying at South West Essex art school she secretly auditioned for Rada without telling her parents.

After winning the Forbes Robertson prize she made her film debut in The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) and went on to stage work in rep at Ipswich and Leatherhead, making her first London appearance as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.

With Kenneth More’s ageing lothario in the ITV play Collect Your Hand Baggage, written by John Mortimer, 1963

She spent six months hitchhiking in the south of France, followed by a spell at the Old Vic, touring in the United States and Canada as Lady Macduff in Macbeth and Andromache in Troilus and Cressida. On her return to England she played Kate Nickleby in the television series Nicholas Nickleby (BBC, 1957) when she met her second husband Brian Peck, cast as Smike.

“When Brian and I were first married, we were very poor indeed,” she remembered. “We lived in a flat in Maida Vale and we both stayed in bed all day trying to keep warm until my daughter came home from school. We lived most of the time on cheese and beer.”

Jennifer Wilson later took roles in The Mousetrap on stage and Coronation Street CREDIT: Shutterstock

After a Shakespearean tour of India with Marius Goring, playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Rosalind in As You Like It, Jennifer Wilson appeared in more than 100 television plays and series including as the mistress Muriel in A Man of Our Times (Rediffusion, 1968) and for two years played Alfred Marks’s daughter in a West End production of Spring and Port Wine (Mermaid, 1965).

For 11 months in 2000 she appeared as Mrs Boyle in Agatha Christie’s long-running drama The Mousetrap (St Martin’s).

On television she played Det Sgt Helen Webb in the first series of ITV’s Special Branch in 1969 before being cast in The Brothers. In her early eighties her final acting roles were as Mrs Bradbury in an episode of Coronation Street in 2014 and as Nancy Milne in three episodes of the BBC lunchtime soap Doctors (2014-15).

Jennifer Wilson’s first marriage, to an artist, Stanley Swain, in 1954, ended in divorce. She married Brian Peck in 1959. He died in 2021 and she is survived by a daughter from her first marriage, the actress Melanie Peck.

Jennifer Wilson, born April 25 1932, death announced April 4 2022

Jane Lapotaire was born in 1944 in Ipswich. Her television debut came in the tv series “Sherlock Holmes” in 1968. Her films include “Anthony and Cleopatra” in 1972, “The Asphyx” and “One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing”.

“Coventry Telegraph” article from Oct 2013:

Veteran actor Jane Lapotaire is rejoining the RSC in her first stage performance since collapsing with a brain haemorrhage 13 years ago. She talks to Catherine Vonledebur .

Jane Lapotaire’s dressing room at the RSC is Room 101.

“Isn’t Room 101 where you throw unwanted things?” laughs the witty Tony Award-winner.

She is next door to David Tennant, who she says “is on stage most of the time”.

It is the first time Jane has returned to theatre since suffering a near-fatal brain aneurysm at 57, while teaching a Shakespeare masterclass for an International School in Paris in January 2000.

One of the leading stage actresses of her generation, Jane is making her comeback at the RSC as the Duchess of Gloucester in artistic director Greg Doran’s Richard II.

“I feel overwhelmed, joyous, excited, frightened, nostalgic and overjoyed to be back, especially working with Greg. I played Katherine of Aragon in his Henry VIII.

“When he rang and asked me if I’d like the part I said: ‘you have made my dreams come true’. I was like a six-year-old.

“I love the man. He runs a rehearsal room that’s full of trust and affection.

“It was assumed I would never work on stage again, largely because of stamina. Greg has given me one scene.”

Jane never imagined she would return to the stage after her illness.

“Greg asked me to do a poem for the Gala Night when the new theatre opened. I was very moved to be part of that celebration and thought ‘I’d better make the most of this, I will never work on this stage again’.

“Every time I drove into Stratford to do my shopping my heart used to leap out of my chest and yearn towards this building. Being a classical actor is a vocation. You do not do it to get famous or get money, you do it because you love the words. This is my dream come true.”

Jane says she has an “awful lot of crocheting and knitting” to do in her spare time. “Everyone in the cast will have a crocheted hat.”

On her dressing table there is a portrait of the real Duchess of Gloucester, Eleanor de Bohun.

“Eleanor was not elderly. She died at 33. Everyone knows Shakespeare plays are not always historically accurate. We had a special visit to Westminster Abbey. I laid my hand on her grave and asked for her help,” she explains.

A bunch of pink roses in a glass vase is a gift from actor Emma Hamilton, who plays The Queen. “A lovely, sweet girl. She did not want me to come into an empty dressing room.” Pointing to a line along her scalp Jane says: “I have a scar from here-to-here,” she explains. “I collapsed in Paris, which was a miracle according to several medics I know, as France has the best brain surgeons in the world.

“I do not think they expected me to survive. Just before six hours of surgery the doctor said “Est-ce que vous comprenez…? I speak French fluently and replied: ‘Yes I understand. It’s a very dangerous operation and I might not pull through’. “My first thought was: ‘I have been an actor’ and ‘give my son my love’.” Her son is the film director and screenwriter Rowan Joffe. Jane admits rejoining the RSC was a little overwhelming at first. “It is a complete change to my regiment. After a brain injury there’s a limit to how much you can cope with and how many people.

“In the first two weeks of rehearsals on Clapham High Street it was 80 degrees with 40 to 60 people in the room every day – up until then I’d done two consecutive days work in 13 years. “My problem is spatial relationships which makes it very tricky as the stage floor is shiny black glass.” Jane’s previous RSC roles have included Piaf, for which she received a Tony Award, and Gertrude to Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. She is now an honorary associate artist at the RSC.

When she was younger Jane wanted to be a writer. Her 2003 best-selling memoir Time Out of Mind, recounting the story of her life-threatening illness and recovery, was nominated for a MIND award.

“I was up against Hilary Mantel. She got the prize. I was chuffed,” she says. “I am so lucky. Most people who had what I had do not live or are in a wheelchair.” Jane says her illness has tamed her once wild lifestyle – but she still has one vice. “I cannot eat wheat, dairy, chocolate or fruit, apart from a certain type of apple. I am completely vegan now. “I don’t drink anymore, but I admit I do smoke. I have always been a bad girl – but now I live on gluten-free biscuits, brown rice and beans.”

The above “Coventry Telegraph£ article can also be accessed online here.

Peter Howitt was born in 1957 in Manchester. He came to f ame in the tv series “Bread” as the leather clad son Joey for four series starting in 1986. He is now a film directgor and has directed sush films as “Sliding Doors” in 1998, “Johnny English”, “Laws of Attraction” with Pierce Brosnan and “Dangerous Parking”.

Judy Parfitt. IMDB

Judy Parfitt was born in Sheffield in 1935. Primarily a stage actress until the 1980’s. she played in “Maurice” in 1987. She played a sterling performance opposite Kathy Bates in “Dolores Claibourne” in 1995. She also starred in “The Girl With a Pearl Earring” with Colin Firth and Cillian Murphy. In 1984 she played Mildred Layton in the epic miniseries “The Jewel in the Crown”. She is currently starring in the popular BBC television series “Call The Midwife”.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Of regal bearing and imposing stance, British classical actress Judy Parfitt is the possessor of the chilliest blue orbs in all of London and has used them to her advantage over the years with her portrayals of haughty, bossy, scheming and deliciously malevolent patricians. Born in Yorkshire, she was originally trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and made her stage debut with “Fools Rush In” in 1954, continuing to impress with such pieces as “Things Remembered” (1955) and “A Likely Talk” (1956). It wasn’t until mid-career in the late 1960s that she drew the type of widespread attention she deserved.

Original Cinema Quad Poster – Movie Film Posters

Judy earned critical acclaim for her Gertrude in the 1969 stage production of “Hamlet”, which starred Nicol Williamson in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as Claudius, with the inspiring casting of Marianne Faithfull (yes, the Brit pop singer) as Ophelia. Judy transferred her role to film in the same year and met with equal success. From then on, she graced a number of TV adaptations of literary classics including Pride and Prejudice(1980) and The Jewel in the Crown (1984), while continuing to receive applause for her theatre work in productions of “The Duchess of Malfi” (1971); “Vivat! Vivat Regina!” (1971) as Mary, Queen of Scots; “The Apple Cart” (1973); “The Cherry Orchard” (1978) and “An Inspector Calls” (1993).

More recently, she co-starred with Matthew Broderick in a Broadway revival of “Night Must Fall” (1999). She made a belated Hollywood film debut in the gloomy-styled thriller Dolores Claiborne (1995) and nearly stole the thunder right out from under star Kathy Bates with her electric portrayal of Kathy Bates‘ wealthy, dictatorial employer. Her clever and utterly gripping performance was shamefully overlooked come Oscar time. Judy was long married to actor Tony Steedman, who made a guest appearance on her short-lived sitcom The Charmings (1987) in the late 1980s. He died in February of 2001. Since then she has ventured on, an always glowing character presence in elegant and period settings.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

John Mahoney was born in 1940 in Blackpool. He emigrated to the U.S. when a young man and pursued his acting career there. He is best remembered for his role as the fater in “Frasier” one of the most popular sitcoms. His films include “Betrayal” in 1988, “In the Line of Fire”, “The American President” and “Barton Fink”.

IMDB entry:
John Mahoney is an award-winning American actor who was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. The seventh of eight children, Mahoney’s family had been evacuated to the sea-side resort to avoid the Nazi bombing of their native Manchester. The Mancunian Mahoneys eventually returned to Manchester during the war. Visiting the States to see his older sister, a “war bride” who had married an American, the young Mahoney decided to emigrate and was sponsored by his sister. He eventually won his citizenship by serving in the U.S. Army.

Long interested in acting, Mahoney didn’t actually make the transition to his craft until he was almost 40 years old. Mahoney took acting classes at the St. Nicholas Theater and finally built up the courage to quit his day job and pursue acting full time, John Malkovich, one of the founders of the Second City’s distinguished Steppenwolf Theatre, encouraged Mahoney to join Steppenwolf. In 1986, Mahoney won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in John Guare‘s American Playhouse: The House of Blue Leaves (1987).

Mahoney made his feature film debut in 1980, but he is best known for playing the role of the father of the eponymous character Frasier (1993) from 1993 until 2004. He is concentrating on stage work back in Chicago and has appeared on Broadway in 2007 in a revival of Prelude to a Kiss (1992).

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood

The above entry can also be accessed online here.

Lynette Davies was born in Tonypandy in Wales in 1948. She made her tv debut in “Brett” in 1971. She had the leading part in the tv series “The Foundation” from 1977 until 1978. Later roles included “Bergerac” and “Street Legal”. She died in 1994.

Anthony Hayward’s obituary in “The Independent”:

IT WAS as the high-powered businesswoman Davinia Prince in the Seventies drama series The Foundation that Lynette Davies found national fame, although her interest was always in acting, not stardom. Born in Tonypandy in 1948, the daughter of a Customs and Excise officer, she was educated at Our Lady’s Convent School, Cardiff, and trained at Rada, before going into repertory theatre at the Bristol Old Vic. She later acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company (1974-77). When celebrity status came, it was on television as the star of The Foundation, playing one of the first women to be featured as the main character in a boardroom-to-bedroom drama, with a young Patsy Kensit as her daughter. The programme ran for two series (1977 and 1978), with Davies as a bossy, bitchy tycoon who could be as ruthless as any man She had previously appeared on television in The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Clayhanger and Will Shakespeare, and subsequently acted in Tales of the Unexpected and Inside Story, although she spent most of her later years on stage, in the West End and in New Zealand, Canada and America.

Twice married, the second time to the television set designer Jose Furtado, with whom she lived in Toronto while working in the theatre and on radio there, Davies once said: ‘I enjoy acting, but I also enjoy my privacy. I really didn’t want to make millions and be a star.’

The above “Independent” entry can also be accessed online here.

Maurice Evans was a great Shakespearan actor who made occasional films. He was born in 1901 in Dorchester. His first appearance on Broadway was in 1936 in “Romeo and Juliet” with Katharine Cornell. His films include “Scrooge” in 1935, “Kind Lady” with Angela Lansbury in 1951, “Macbeth” in 1960 with Judith Anderson. and “Planet of the Apes” in 1968. He died in East Sussex at the age of 87 in 1988.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

A grand, robust, highly theatrical British classical actor, Maurice Evans was the son of a justice of the peace who enjoyed amateur playwriting on the side. In fact, his father adapted several adaptations of Thomas Hardy‘s novels and Evans would often appear in them. Early interest also came in London choirs as a boy tenor. Making his professional stage debut in 1926, Evans made do during his struggling years by running a cleaning and dyeing store. He earned his first triumph three years later in the play “Journey’s End”. A few attempts as a film lead and/or second lead didn’t pan out. Following a season with the Old Vic theatre company, he arrived in America and proceeded to conquer Broadway, establishing himself as one of the world’s more illustrious interpreters of Shakespeare. His eloquent, florid portrayals of Romeo, Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard II are considered among the best. He was also deemed a master of Shavian works which included superlative performances in “Major Barbara”, “Man and Superman” and “The Devil’s Disciple”. As a US citizen (1941), he was placed in charge of the Army Entertainment Section, Central Pacific Theater during WWII and left military service with the rank of major. His post-war career included a handful of character film roles, notablyGilbert and Sullivan (1953) (as composer Sir Arthur Sullivan), The War Lord (1965),Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and as “Dr. Zaius” in the Planet of the Apes (1968) series. However, films would never be his strong suit, earning much more stature on TV. More importantly, he brought Shakespeare to TV, adapting (and directing) a number of his stage classics. He won an Emmy award in 1960 for his Macbeth (1960). Interestingly, for all his legendary performances under the theatre lights, the elegant, ever-regal stage master is probably best known to generations of audiences for his recurring, non-classical appearances on the Bewitched (1964) TV series, as Elizabeth Montgomery‘s loving but unapproving warlock father. Evans returned to England in his twilight years and died there in a nursing home of heart failure as a result of a bronchial infection, aged 87.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

To view article on Maurice Evans, please click here.