"Elizabeth dear...": Josephine Tewson has died

Mel O'Drama

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Aged 91...


I've enjoyed a great deal of her work - and I've appreciated her so much more over the last couple of years from watching her incredible working partnership with Ronnie Barker in his various projects as well as on The Two Ronnies and the David Frost shows.





A few comments I've made while watching her - some as recent as last week...


Ronnie and Josephine Tewson sparkle. They've worked together numerous times and their ease with one another comes across strongly. You can tell that it's done very quickly, and it's all the better for it. It has a spontaneous, "live" feel to it, and they're very generous with one another.

Josephine Tewson whose chemistry with Barker is completely evident here. They work so well together and there's no sense of even the slightest nerve at the chaos going on around them in the studio.

They're playing a broad variety of characters, with Tewson's versatility really shining here, her roles ranging from tarts to an old grey haired wife in spectacles to a hilarious (and slightly wicked) portrayal of Joan Bakewell.


Josephine Tewson was in the [Happy Ever After] version, with some thoroughly enjoyable panicking at having to interact with Terry whom she believes to be a mugger.

Most notably, there's Josephine Tewson as Lord Rustless's secretary Miss Bates (it's the kind of timid, subservient but all-seeing and all-knowing role in which she specialises. This first series being black and white she actually looks older here than she would in the early Nineties).

I'm assuming the series was shot live, and that came across in a wonderful little incident that seemed unplanned early in the episode. Miss Bates turned to walk away from the front desk, but found her skirt was caught in one of the metal shields adorning the front of the desk. I suspect this gave us a few seconds of ad libs which gave Ronnie Barker and Josephine Tewson the chance to show what pros they are. Barker's quick retort "Kindly leave my insignia alone" was wonderful.


It's a given that in each episode certain notes will be hit. Elizabeth will be requested to take tea with Hyacinth. Hyacinth will face the window and mourn the loss of another Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles.
 

Angela Channing

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This is very sad news. She was a mainstay of British sitcoms for half a century. My earliest memory of her was in a BBC sitcom called No Appointment Necessary which I really enjoyed at the time although it didn't really catch on with viewers and it only lasted one season.
 

Englishboy

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I remember her well in “Keeping Up Appearances” even though I have always regarded it as being a mostly single joke sitcom.

I had no idea that she was as old as 91.

May she Rest in Peace.
 
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Mel O'Drama

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My earliest memory of her was in a BBC sitcom called No Appointment Necessary which I really enjoyed at the time although it didn't really catch on with viewers and it only lasted one season.

Oh - I hadn't heard of that one, no doubt for the reasons you mentioned about its short life. Here's hoping it appears on DVD one of these days. Stranger things have happened.



I had no idea that she was old as 91.

That was a surprise to me as well.

Part of what made her such a great character actress was that she was almost ageless. She looked exactly the same age in her last Summer Wine episodes as she did in Frost On Sunday more than three decades earlier. She's always been able to pull off any age to perfection.





I'd forgotten that Josephine had a short marriage to Leonard Rossiter. I'm sure I've read about this in great detail in someone's autobiography but for the life of me I can't remember whose (I haven't read biographies on either Leonard or Josephine, so it's not the obvious ones).
 

Angela Channing

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Oh - I hadn't heard of that one, no doubt for the reasons you mentioned about its short life. Here's hoping it appears on DVD one of these days. Stranger things have happened.
I don't remember a great deal about it because I was in infant school when it was on but I can remember looking forward to watching it every week. What I do recall was that it was set in a hairdressers and Josephine was the manager who used to clash with the owner who was played by Roy Kinnear. It went out on BBC1 at 7pm on Fridays.
 

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RIP Josephine Tewson

I never liked Keeping Up Appearances, but do emember her for her work with Ronnie Barker

also RIP Bruce Montague from Butterflies

 
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