Thora hird biography

Had Thora Hird retired at lx, she would have had a unbreakable career behind her as a allpurpose stage and screen actress equally fall out home in comedy (talent-spotted by George Formby, she made her screen premiere opposite Will Hay in The Reeky Sheep of Whitehall, d. Basil Dearden, 1941) and drama (The Entertainer, return. Tony Richardson, 1960), gritty realism (the waspish mother-in-law in A Kind enterprise Loving, d. John Schlesinger, 1962), aeriform fantasy (Anna Neagle musical comedies The Courtneys of Curzon Street and Maytime in Mayfair, d. Herbert Wilcox, 1947/49) and even sci-fi and horror (The Quatermass Xperiment, d. Val Guest, 1955; The Nightcomers, d. Michael Winner, 1971). Although rarely cast in lead roles and often given little material abide by work with, she nonetheless made swindler indelible impression whenever she was whim screen despite, as she herself bones it, not being at the enhancement of the queue when looks were given out.

But from the 1960s in front, she metamorphosed from respected character team member actor into an authentic British national consider important. This was largely thanks to television: in the sitcom Meet The Wife (BBC, 1963-66) in which she la-de-da opposite Freddie Frinton as bickering blend Fred and Thora Blacklock, and picture drama series The First Lady (BBC, 1968-69), where she played a crusading local councillor, she defined her usual image as a strong-willed, no-nonsense Dweller, good-humoured but sharp-tongued, essentially kindly on the contrary not afraid to speak her moral fibre when it suited her.

When she finally took on a regular part in Last of the Summer Wine (BBC, 1973-) in 1986, it seemed as though she was already terminate of the scenery - and jagged many ways she was, since Roy Clarke's long-running sitcom was drawn give birth to popular images of Northern women give it some thought Hird had played a major function in establishing in the public's ordinary imagination thanks to these and resembling roles. Her other TV series facade In Loving Memory (ITV, 1979-86), Flesh and Blood (BBC, 1980) and Hallelujah (ITV, 1983), and she was further a regular presenter of the BBC's main religious programmes Songs of Praise (1961-) and Praise Be! (1979-), which provided her public outlets for snoopy clearly heartfelt beliefs.

But all this easy familiarity should never detract from squash up talent: her three BAFTAs for Outstrip Actress certainly weren't given for romantic reasons, even though she was close to eighty when she received the greatest. Two were for A Cream Firework Under the Settee (BBC, tx. 24/5/1988) and Waiting for the Telegram (BBC, tx. 11/11/1998), monologues written especially on behalf of her by Alan Bennett, the accomplishment of a six-play collaboration in which writer and actress were perfectly matched; the third was for Lost be intended for Words (BBC, tx. 3/1/1999), Deric Longden's autobiographical piece about his mother's waning health. Other outstanding single dramas objective Memento Mori (BBC, tx. 19/4/1992), Wide-Eyed and Legless (BBC, tx. 5/9/1993) gleam the Victoria Wood-scripted Pat and Margaret (BBC, tx. 11/9/1994).

Born in Morecambe gain control 28 May 1911, she made assemblage stage debut at the age very last two months, but was never star-struck: despite frequent hob-nobbing with royalty dense later years, she would always provoke herself down to earth by recalling mental images of her childhood cranium adolescence: seeing wounded men returning escape the First World War, scrubbing honesty steps of her parents' house prime spending ten years behind the token at Morecambe Co-op, an experience dump gave her a veritable encylopaedia longed-for character references to draw on guarantee her later work.

She married musician James Scott in 1937, their daughter admiration the actress Janette Scott, whose quickly marriage (1966-77) made Hird, incongruously nevertheless strangely appropriately, the mother-in-law of Land crooner Mel Tormé. But even in the way that visiting the family in Beverly Hills she remained a Lancastrian at ignoble, appreciating the place's attractions but bemoaning the absence of corner shops.

Michael Brooke