Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Carol Lee Scott obit

Carol Lee Scott obituary

This article is more than 8 years old
Actor who played Grotbags, wicked witch in the children’s TV show Emu’s World and star of a hit spin-off series

 

She was not on the list.


The entertainer Carol Lee Scott, who has died of cancer aged 74, took time out of her career as a singer on the cabaret circuit to play one of children’s television’s most colourful characters, Grotbags, complete with green hair and skin, a blacked-out tooth and increasingly outlandish outfits.

Wearing moon boots and looking like a pantomime villain, Scott first played the wicked witch in Emu’s World (1982-84 and 1988) alongside Rod Hull, trying to lure his anarchic puppet Emu to her castle, Gloomy Fortress, so that she could use its special powers to control the all-singing, all-dancing children from the Pink Windmill – “brats”, she called them. She kept her own servant, Croc, in line by hitting him with her bazazzer, an umbrella-shaped stick with a pointing finger at the end.

Scott continued with Hull in his subsequent programmes, Emu’s All-Live Pink Windmill Show (1984-85), Emu’s Pink Windmill Show (1986), Emu’s Wide World (1987-88) and EMU TV (1989), as well as voicing the witch in his 1991 cartoon series, Rod ’n’ Emu.

Then, with the puppeteer Richard Coombs – who had worked with Jim Henson – she devised her own series, Grotbags (1991-93), whose new characters included Dorris the Dodo and Colin the Bat. She also played Auntie Kipplewick in some episodes and the shows became a cult hit with university students as well as children.

The origins of Grotbags went back to Scott’s time in a summer season in Cleethorpes on the same bill as Hull, who had been commissioned by ITV to make a new series and offered her a part. “I had this idea for a fat fairy character who kept casting spells that always went wrong,” she recalled. “Rod really liked the idea of a witch, so I said that she had to be a silly witch rather than a sinister witch. A great friend of ours … always used to call me ‘Miss Grot’, so I suggested that to Rod. He went away and came back the next day with ‘Grotbags’.”

She was born in Bridgwater, Somerset, daughter of Scott Waterman, a garage owner, and his wife, Gladys (nee Rossiter and known as “Babe”), who ran a cafe. Carol learned to play the piano by ear as a child, enjoyed singing and, on leaving Bridgwater grammar school at 15, worked in a local record shop and performed in concerts and pantomimes.

She then headed for London in her white Triumph Herald and sang in a pub band by night while working in the record department of a Rumbelows electrical store by day. This was followed by 19 years of performing in Pontins holiday camps across Britain and in Scandinavia, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. During this time, she also sang rock’n’roll songs and ballads in working men’s clubs in the north of England and at London cabaret venues – up to three a night – as well as appearing in summer seasons with stars such as Max Wall, Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper and Morecambe and Wise.

Her act also included comedy and she took her professional name from her father’s forename and added “Lee” because the actors’ union, Equity, already had a member called Carol Scott.

In 1974 she recorded an album, In Time, to sell to fans at her gigs. Two of the tracks, That Little Bit of Love and You Gotta Believe, were re-released as a single in 2005 by Licorice Soul Records, a label dedicated to giving new life to obscure dance-floor music. “Carol’s vocal talents were bold and sassy and the record is an essential purchase for anyone into classic 70s funk,” wrote one reviewer.

Scott, who was also a regular in pantomime, married Bill Ling in 1967. He died in 2013.

Carol Lee Scott, singer and actor, born 20 December 1942; died 4 July 2017

Actress

 

    Freddie Starr in Freddie Starr (1993)

    Freddie Starr

    6.5

    TV Series

        1993

    Carol Lee Scott in Grotbags (1991)

    Grotbags

    7.2

    TV Series

        GrotbagsAuntie Kipplewick

        1991–1993

    Rod Hull in Rod 'n' Emu (1991)

    Rod 'n' Emu

    6.3

    TV Series

        Grotbags (voice)

        1991

    E.M.U. TV (1989)

    E.M.U. TV

    5.0

    TV Series

        Grotbags

        1989

    The Book Tower (1979)

    The Book Tower

    7.8

    TV Series

        Grotbags - Presenter

        1989

    Emu's Wide World (1987)

    Emu's Wide World

    5.9

    TV Series

        GrotbagsDaft Aida

        1987–1988

    Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show (1984)

    Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show

    7.4

    TV Series

        GrotbagsDaft Aida

        1984–1986

    Emu's World (1982)

    Emu's World

    6.6

    TV Series

        Grotbags

        1982–1984

    Alan Dobie in The ITV Play (1968)

    The ITV Play

    TV Series

        Pub singer (as Carol Scott)

        1972

    Barbar the Little Elephant

    TV Movie

        Bird (as Carol Waterman)

        1966

 

Writer

 

    Carol Lee Scott in Grotbags (1991)

    Grotbags

    7.2

    TV Series

        deviserseries deviserdivised by ...

        1991–1993

 

Soundtrack

 

    E.M.U. TV (1989)

    E.M.U. TV

    5.0

    TV Series

        performer: "Camaraderie" (uncredited)

        1989

    Emu's Wide World (1987)

    Emu's Wide World

    5.9

    TV Series

        performer: "I'm Five"performer: "That's What I'd Like for Christmas"performer: "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" (uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited) ...

        1987–1988

    Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show (1984)

    Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show

    7.4

    TV Series

        performer: "Count on Me"performer: "He's The Wizard"performer: "All for One" (uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited) ...

        1984–1986

    Emu's World (1982)

    Emu's World

    6.6

    TV Series

        performer: "With a Flair"performer: "We Need a Little Christmas"performer: "Nobody Does It Like Me" (uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited, uncredited) ...

        1982–1984

 

Self

 

    Perfect Night In (2007)

    Perfect Night In

    7.7

    TV Series

        Self (as Carol Lee Scott 'Grotbags')

        2007

    Rod Hull in Rod Hull: A Bird in the Hand (2003)

    Rod Hull: A Bird in the Hand

    7.8

    TV Movie

        Self - 'Grotbags', The Pink Windmill Show, ITV

        2003

    20 Years CiTV Birthday Bash (2003)

    20 Years CiTV Birthday Bash

    TV Movie

        Self - Grotbags

        2003

    Bob Monkhouse in Celebrity Squares (1975)

    Celebrity Squares

    5.4

    TV Series

        Self

        1993

    Children's ITV (1983)

    Children's ITV

    7.3

    TV Series

        Self - Presenter (as Grotbags the Witch)

        1984–1986

    Children's Royal Variety Performance

    TV Special

        Self

        1985

    Bullseye (1981)

    Bullseye

    7.1

    TV Series

        Self - Special Guest

        1984

    The Children's Royal Variety Performance

    TV Special

        Self

        1984

    Punchlines (1981)

    Punchlines

    5.4

    TV Series

        Self

        1981

    Hughie Green in Opportunity Knocks (1956)

    Opportunity Knocks

    6.2

    TV Series

        Self - Singer

        1971

 

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