A spark to pierce the dark

Sharing her birthday with another odd assortment of names that includes Dame Patricia Routledge, Gene Pitney, Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Lola Montez, Ed Sheeran, Rory Kinnear, Ron Goodwin, Ruth Rendell, Brenda Fricker, Karl Jenkins, Nicholas Ridley, Rene Russo, Dame Angela Eagle, Michael Jordan and - erm - Paris Hilton, the very lovely Miss Julia McKenzie is (gulp) 80 years old today!

Seemingly a "permanent fixture" on our screens since the late 1970s (particularly considering the endless repeats of her stolid performance as the most recent incarnation of Miss Marple), the not-yet-a-Dame Julia began her career in the theatre, winning awards for her performances as "Miss Adelaide" in Guys and Dolls and as "Mrs Lovett" in Sweeney Todd, as well as for her more serious role in Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind ("about an emotionally neglected middle-aged woman's descent into madness").

Indeed, despite her success in television series such as Fresh Fields/French Fields, Blott on the Landscape, Cranford and the aforementioned Marple, and big-screen roles in Shirley Valentine, Bright Young Things and Notes on a Scandal, it is for her enduring and hugely successful relationship with the works of the great Stephen Sondheim we love her the most!

Performances such as these...

Julia McKenzie - Broadway Baby

Millicent Martin, Julia McKenzie and David Kernan - You Could Drive A Person Crazy

Kit & The Widow - People Who Like Sondheim (part 2)

Facts:

• Miss McKenzie went to school a mere stone's throw away from Dolores Delargo Towers #4, in what is now known as Woodside High School, Wood Green.
• When Ned Sherrin's revue Side by Side by Sondheim transferred from the West End to Broadway in 1977 it was a massive hit, and she received a Tony Award nomination for her part in it.
• As Patron of the Society, she is a member of the judging panel for the annual Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year competition.
• It was Miss McKenzie who doubled for Her Maj in various scenes in the famous "HM-The-Queen-meets-James-Bond-and-jumps-from-a-helicopter" segment from the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Many happy returns, Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie, CBE (born 17th February 1941)!