Sheila Steafel obituary
Versatile stage, screen and radio actor admired for her comic timing
She was not on the list.
Sheila Steafel, who has died aged 84, was a versatile and bewitching character actor with an outstanding gift for comic timing. As well as being the regular female cast member on the landmark satirical television show The Frost Report (1966-67) – alongside the emerging talents of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett – she played opposite, “and sometimes against”, in her words, many of the leading TV comedians of the day, including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (in Not Only … But Also, 1965), Roy Hudd, Tommy Cooper, Spike Milligan and Kenny Everett.
After the success of The Frost Report, a winner of the Golden Rose of Montreux, she was in demand for guest parts in comedy series. Regular roles included Ivy Watkins in the Granada sitcom How’s Your Father (1974-75), the White Lady in all three series of Richard Carpenter’s charming comedy The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976-78), and the imperious literary agent supporting debut novelist Diane Keen as she starts to overshadow Tim Brooke-Taylor in the sitcom You Must Be the Husband (1987-88).
But while she was a game comic foil on TV, she shone as a stage performer in one-woman shows at the Edinburgh festival and various London theatres. In The Late Sheila Steafel (1981), Steafel Solo (1982), Steafel XPress (1985) and Victoria Plums (1995) she delivered comic songs and monologues supplied by writers including Keith Waterhouse, Barry Cryer, David Nobbs, Andy Hamilton and Dick Vosburgh.
Her features were distinctive, and she deployed them to comedic advantage. Her lidded eyes could be languidly seductive or quizzically innocent, her brows could arch sardonically while her face remained still, and a wry kink in her lips could curl into a feline smile, accentuated by her high cheekbones.
Vocally dextrous but also a fine physical clown, she created Miss Popsy Wopsy, a woozy, klutzy ingenue – a music hall entertainer who was never quite on note and always just behind the beat. She performed the character in her shows and several times on TV in The Good Old Days in the 1970s and 80s. In person she could deliver drawled witticisms and deadpan putdowns, making her a jolly addition to panel shows such as Juke Box Jury, Call My Bluff and Blankety Blank.
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sheila was the younger of two children of Harold, a garage owner from Lancashire, and his wife, Eda (nee Cohen). There was little professional theatre, but Harold directed and performed in amateur productions, particularly of Gilbert and Sullivan, and the young Sheila would watch from the wings. Her mother was a talented pianist and so her childhood was surrounded by drama and music. She also sang at the local synagogue, where both Harold and Eda were involved in directing the choir.
She was educated at Barnato Park school, not far from her home in the middle-class suburb of Berea, and narrowly avoided being expelled for writing a risqué pantomime.
At Witwatersrand University she studied fine art, but abandoned the course to travel to Britain to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) in London in 1953. She did a term at its preparatory academy, but was told she was unusual and would probably have to wait until she was in her 30s and become a character actor. Undeterred, she enrolled instead at the Webber Douglas Academy, where she won the Margaret Rutherford award for comedy.
After graduation and stints in repertory theatre in
Blackpool and Lincoln, in 1959 she worked as an usherette at the Players’
theatre, Charing Cross, which presented Victorian music hall shows, and
eventually plucked up the courage to ask for an audition. She passed, and while
there honed her comedy skills, created Miss Popsy Wopsy and began to get
noticed. Her first West End opportunity came in 1961, when she took over the
role of Barbara opposite Tom Courtenay in Billy Liar, directed by Lindsay
Anderson.
In 1972 she played opposite Robert Morley in How the Other Half Loves at the Lyric theatre, and she was cast as a female Harpo Marx in A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine (New End theatre, 1979), at the insistence of Vosburgh, its writer. She won rave reviews.
She was a memorably eccentric, hip-flask swigging Mistress Quickly in an RSC production of The Merry Wives of Windsor (1985), played Meg in the Birthday Party at the Bristol Old Vic (2006) and carried on to the last performance despite needing spinal surgery when playing Mrs Brice in Funny Girl at the Minerva theatre, Chichester (2008).
Her films included Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD (1966), Quatermass and the Pit (1967) and the rather less earnest Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984), with Everett and Vincent Price, and co-written by Cryer.
On radio she was a regular cast member of the topical comedy show Weekending (1977-82), was to be heard in plays and readings, and performed in her own vehicles Steafel Plus (1982) and Steafel with an S (1984). In later years she made character appearances in popular TV series such as Doctors (with seven different roles between 2005 and 2016) and Holby City (three between 2007 and 2016).
In 1958 she married the actor Harry H Corbett. After their divorce in 1964 she had various relationships but did not marry again. She described their time together, and her career, in her autobiography, When Harry Met Sheila (2010), and also published a series of short anecdotal stories based on real life encounters entitled Bastards (2012).
Sheila Frances Steafel, actor and comedian, born 26 May 1935; died 23 August 2019.
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1995
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1 episode
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7.2
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13 episodes
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7.2
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Various
1981–1988
19 episodes
Edward and Friends (1987)
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7.6
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1987
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1985
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1983
1 episode
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7.5
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1980–1981
2 episodes
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6.6
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1981
Jackanory (1965)
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1981
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Honky Tonk Heroes
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1981
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1981
1 episode
Frankie Howerd Reveals All (1980)
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1980
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Myrtle Prior JP
1980
6 episodes
The Dawson Watch (1979)
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1979
1 episode
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6.2
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1979
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1979
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1979
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1979
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1979
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1979
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What's Up Superdoc! (1978)
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1978
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1976–1978
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1978
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1977
High as a Kite
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1976
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1976
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1974
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The Tommy Cooper Hour (1973)
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1974
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1973
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1973
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1973
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1970
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1969
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1966–1967
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1967
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1967
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1967
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1966
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1966
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7.2
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1965–1966
2 episodes
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7.1
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1966
1 episode
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8.9
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1966
1 episode
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8.2
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1966
1 episode
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1965
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1965
1 episode
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8.3
TV Series
1965
2 episodes
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1964
1 episode
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7.3
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1964
1 episode
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1964
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6.8
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1964
1 episode
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9.2
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1963
1 episode
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8.0
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1963
1 episode
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6.6
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1963
1 episode
Saki (1962)
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1962
1 episode
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7.3
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1962
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1961
1 episode
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1961
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1960
1 episode
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1960
3 episodes
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1960
2 episodes
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Helen
1960
1 episode
Inside Story
TV Series
Ruth Johnston
1960
1 episode
No Hiding Place (1959)
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7.4
TV Series
Betty Macklin
1959
1 episode
Long Distance
TV Movie
Telephone operator
1958
Jack Hylton's Monday Show
TV Series
1957
1 episode
Soundtrack
Mireille Allonville, Ted Rogers, and Dusty Bin in 3-2-1
(1978)
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5.6
TV Series
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Louise"
1979
1 episode
Self
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7.2
TV Movie
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2018
My Hero
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Self
2013
1 episode
The Many Faces of... (2009)
The Many Faces of...
6.4
TV Series
Self
2012
1 episode
Monty Python in Monty Python: Before the Flying Circus
(2008)
Monty Python: Before the Flying Circus
7.3
TV Movie
Self
2008
The Frost Report Is Back (2008)
The Frost Report Is Back
8.0
TV Movie
Self
2008
Don't Quote Me (1990)
Don't Quote Me
TV Series
Self
1990
1 episode
Terry Wogan in Wogan (1982)
Wogan
6.1
TV Series
Self
1988–1989
2 episodes
Call My Bluff (1965)
Call My Bluff
7.0
TV Series
Self
1982–1988
13 episodes
Terry Wogan in Blankety Blank (1978)
Blankety Blank
6.3
TV Series
Self
1983–1988
2 episodes
Celia Imrie and Rik Mayall in Comic Relief (1988)
Comic Relief
6.9
TV Special
Self
1988
Pebble Mill at One (1972)
Pebble Mill at One
6.3
TV Series
Self
1985
1 episode
Babble
TV Series
Self
1983–1985
12 episodes
Super Troupers
TV Series
Self
1985
1 episode
Punchlines (1981)
Punchlines
5.8
TV Series
Self
1981–1984
5 episodes
Mireille Allonville, Ted Rogers, and Dusty Bin in 3-2-1
(1978)
3-2-1
5.6
TV Series
Self - Guest Star
Fairy Godmother
1979–1984
4 episodes
The Good Old Days (1953)
The Good Old Days
6.9
TV Series
Self - Performer
1975–1983
9 episodes
Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful
TV Series
Sarah
1982
1 episode
The Pyramid Game (1981)
The Pyramid Game
TV Series
Self
1982
1 episode
It's a Knockout (1966)
It's a Knockout
7.8
TV Series
Self
1976–1981
5 episodes
Saturday Night at the Mill (1976)
Saturday Night at the Mill
6.6
TV Series
Self
1981
1 episode
Michael Aspel, Lionel Blair, and Una Stubbs in Give Us a
Clue (1979)
Give Us a Clue
7.0
TV Series
Self
1980
2 episodes
Michael Aspel in This Is Your Life (1955)
This Is Your Life
6.5
TV Series
Self
1980
1 episode
Graeme Garden in Star Turn (1976)
Star Turn
7.2
TV Series
Self
1978
2 episodes
Roy Castle in Let's Make a Musical (1977)
Let's Make a Musical
TV Series
Self
1977
1 episode
Tarbuck and All That!
TV Series
Self
Various
1975
2 episodes
Festival of Entertainment
TV Series
Self
1975
1 episode
Jimmy Tarbuck in Tarbuck's Luck (1970)
Tarbuck's Luck
TV Series
Self
1972
1 episode
Val Doonican in The Val Doonican Show (1970)
The Val Doonican Show
5.9
TV Series
Self
1971
12 episodes
The Golden Shot (1967)
The Golden Shot
7.0
TV Series
Self
1970
1 episode
Release (1967)
Release
TV Series
Self
1969
1 episode
For Schools and Colleges: Drama
TV Series
Self
1967
1 episode
Helen Atkinson Wood, Nell Campbell, Simon Hickson, Brian
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Juke Box Jury
7.6
TV Series
Self - Panellist
1967
2 episodes
Archive Footage
Victoria Wood's Sketch Show Story (2001)
Victoria Wood's Sketch Show Story
7.5
TV Mini Series
(archive footage)
2001
Heroes of Comedy (1992)
Heroes of Comedy
6.7
TV Series
(archive footage)
1997
1 episode
The Best of... What's Left of... Not Only... But Also (1990)
The Best of... What's Left of... Not Only... But Also
8.0
TV Series
(archive footage)
1990
2 episodes
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