And so, another "national treasure" departs for Fabulon...
[*]
Miss Lynda Baron, for it is she - perhaps surprisingly to many people who only knew her as the redoubtable "Nurse Gladys Emmanuel", object of "Arkwright"'s lust in Open All Hours - had a career that spanned from her debut as a stage dancer and actress in the late '50s, to co-starring with Sheila Hancock and Kenneth Williams in the Peter Cook-scripted West End revue One Over The Eight, to television satire sketch shows such as Ned Sherrin's Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, to "token-busty-dolly-bird" roles in numerous forgettable B-movies and in Frankie Howerd's up Pompeii, to Doctor Who [three times, with three different "Doctors", in the '60s, '80s and in 2011], children's show Come Outside, Eastenders and Father Brown.
It is, of course, Open All Hours (and its sequel) that really embedded her in the nation's conciousness...
...but she received her only BAFTA nomination for her portrayal of Violet Carson/"Ena Sharples" in 2010's The Road To Coronation Street:
She even held her own as one of the "old troupers", alongside Dame Diana Rigg and Julia McKenzie, in Sondheim's Follies, as this clip [that I featured during my week of tributes following the Maestro's death last year] proves!
RIP, Lynda Baron (born Lilian Baron, 24th March 1939 – 7th March 2022)
[* Yes! That is the least menacing "space pirate" in television history - Mr Leee John of Imagination!]
Oh dear. I loved her in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours. Her and Stephanie Cole had entertaining chemistry together on there.
ReplyDeleteThank heavens Miss Cole is still with us!
DeleteFunny thing is, although Stephanie Cole has made a career playing old battleaxes, Lynda Baron was actually older. Jx
Coronation Street... of course. What a lovely lady. 'tis a pity they ever fade at all. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteThe Road To Coronation Street was such a great drama-documentary - hope it was shown in the US! Jx
DeleteShe was fab and will be missed by many
ReplyDeleteSo many of the character actors and actresses are popping their clogs - "Olive" from On the Buses, Jack Smethurst from Love Thy Neighbour, "Doctor Legg" from Eastenders and the chap who played Victoria Wood's dad in the "Swimming the Channel" sketch all died recently too. Jx
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