Susan Hampshire.

[Darto Fielder]

My list of Susan Hampshire BBC TV series. Many of these were based on Victorian era novels.
The episodes are a few minutes short of 1 hour.

1967 Vanity Fair. 5 episodes. (Victorian novel by William Makepeace Thackery).

Vanity Fair is based on a wonderful plot idea. Two young ladies graduate from a girls finishing school. One is wealthy,shy,average looking,moral,and nice.
The other one is a poor orphan, extroverted, a beauty, confident, charming, but sneaky. Her name is Becky Sharp.
They both leave the school and travel to the rich girls parent's home. Susan Hampshire plays the second girl: Becky Sharp.
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1967 The Forsyte Saga. 26 episodes. (Late Victorian / early 20th century novel by John Galsworthy)

The many Forsyte siblings are upper class Londoners who parade their barouches up and down the parkway on Sundays. Most are about 40 years old, married with children. The men are professionals; lawyers, stock brokers, bankers. A main plot is about a feud between Irene and Soames Forsyte (a man).

One of the DVD extras is a BBC presenter revealing a public street survey from 100 random people. 54 say they favor Soames, 39 Irene, and 7 are undecided. Viewership ratings were very high for this show.

Susan Hampshire plays Fleur Forsyte.

 

[Darto Fielder]

1971 The First Churchills. From the non fiction biography by Sir Winston Churchill.

Biographical series about John Churchill and his wife Sarah (Susan Hampshire). Set in the early 1700's restoration period. John Churchill is Duke of Marlborough, the most famous military man of that era before Napoleon. But both he and his wife Sarah were in the middle of all the political dramas. They mingle with the high and mighty every day. This was an era of pollical strife and rebellion. Who was to be King was up for grabs.

The series focuses on the civilian social and political dramas, not the military actions. According to the wikipedia article on John Churchill, the characterizations and plots are were surprisingly close to reality.

1974-1975 The Pallisers. 26 episodes (Victorian novel series by Anthony Trollope).

A political soap opera of the greater Palliser family, particularly of Plantagenet and his wife Glencora (Susan Hampshire). Glencora is wealthy and marries Plantagenet Palliser mainly because her father, the Duke, insists on the match. But she really loves someone else (who is penniless). Plantagenet rises to fame in parliament, mostly because he is sponsored by the Duke. But he is very able, stately, and rises high up the political ladder. Meanwhile his wife is always up to something and getting him into trouble. But this is no comedy series.

1982 The Barsetshire Chronicles 7 episodes. (Another novel series by Trollope)

A religious feud series between the high church of England (Septimas Harding played by Donald Pleasance) and the low church (Obadiah Slope played by Allan Rickman). Susan Hampshire plays Segnora Madaline Maroni, a wealthy lady who is supposedly crippled.

Rickman was mostly unknown until this series, but often upstages everyone. He would later play Colonel Brandon in the Oscar winning movie Sense and Sensibility 1995 directed by Ang Lee. Also played Severus Snape in Harry Potter.

You can see Rev. Slope (Rickman), of low church persuasion, in this short video. Alongside Bishop Proudie (Clive Swift) and his wife Mrs. Proudie, a stalwart high church battleship (Geraldine McEwan, who played Lucia in the Mapp and Lucia series, and later starred as Miss Marple for the BBC).

 

[Darto Fielder]

1997-1998. The Grand. 18 Episodes. Original. Not based on a previous novel.

Susan plays an upscale hotel Madam in this series featuring the Bannerman family that owned and ran the hotel, the staff that lived in the basement, and occasional guests.

While all of the previous series I listed might be called derived from classic literature, this one is directed at the masses and designed to appeal to a wider viewership. It is filled with strange but appealing characters and fabulous costumes.

2000-2005. Monarch of the Glen. 64 episodes. Original.

A very popular paintings of the 19th century was the Monarch of the Glen. Painted as part of a chase series. But the monarch elk is so spectacularly racked, that hunters would probably never shoot such a magnificent creature.

Another series calculated to appeal to the masses. Susan Hampshire is in every episode, playing the matriarch of the family.

The series is about a man trying to restore his home way out in the Highlands, and another owner trying to modernize this estate. Although foolishness abounds, this is a dramatic rather than comedy series. And like all of these seven series, was very popular on the BBC.

 

[Barbara Fan]

I saw Susan Hampshire in a UK pantomime with Patrick Duffy from Dallas in 2007
She had grown old very gracefully

 

[Darto Fielder]

I couldn't find Duffy and Hampshire together on Youtube. Would love to have seen that! Here's Vera Miles, Leonard Nimoy, and Susan in Baffled (1973).

 

[Willie Oleson]

Sometimes I confuse the name with Susan George and then I confuse Susan G. with Susannah York.

Looking at her filmography I remember her role in the TV series THE GRAND (and I was disappointed that it ended so soon).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Sometimes I confuse the name with Susan George and then I confuse Susan G. with Susannah York.

I had a similar experience when I saw this thread and was looking forward to seeing a write-up of her time as Judi Dench's sister in A Fine Romance. It took an online search for me to confirm I was thinking of Susan Penhaligon*.

Somewhere along the way, Susan H. and Susan G. were also briefly conflated in my mind.

* Sadly for the other two, Susan P. appears to be the only one of the three who was famous enough to do an episode of Give Us A Clue.

 

[Barbara Fan]

I couldn't find Duffy and Hampshire together on Youtube. Would love to have seen that! Here's Vera Miles, Leonard Nimoy, and Susan in Baffled (1973).

It was on stage in a theatre

Panto is a very British thing https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pantomime/