Mo Hayder obit

Clare Dunkel obituary

Glamour model, actress and Miss Nude 1982 who as the crime author Mo Hayder was known as a ‘connoisseur of corpses’

 She was not on the list.

In her mid-20s, while working as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub, the author Mo Hayder, who has died aged 59, saw the lives of three strangers snuffed out in quick succession. A heart attack in a coffee bar; a workman falling to his death; a snakebite.

These closeup brushes with mortality, shortly after the murder of one friend and the brutal rape of another, sparked a fascination with death and with violence against women that would last a lifetime. Later, while working as a film-maker, Mo produced an animated short in which a cute Claymation couple went to bed together before the woman pulled the man’s head off, ate it and lobbed the skull out of the window. The film won an award, but the local TV station refused to show it, on the grounds that they did not agree with cannibalism.

Are You Being Served? actress Clare Dunkel has died at the age of 59 as tributes pour in.

The former glamour model turned crime author passed away from motor neurone disease (MND) on July 27.

Clare – also known as Mo Hayder – became diagnosed with the disease in December and it “progressed at an alarming rate”.

Tributes have poured in for Clare as her agent Jane Gregory called her a “brilliant writer and a wonderful, extraordinary, unique human being”.

She added: “Her books were astonishing and innovative.

“Clare was charming, entertaining, caustic and always great company. It was a privilege to work with her and an honour to have become her friend.”

One person said on Twitter: “She was an incredible writer. Such a loss that she’s sadly passed away.”

Another added: “I am saddened to learn, only now, of the death of Mo Hayder. She was a wonderful writer with a wicked, wicked imagination. RIP.”

A third wrote: “Oh no! RIP #MoHayder brilliant author.”

Meanwhile, fellow crime fiction writer Mark Billingham said: “Crime/horror mash-up is quite an established thing now, but there were very few people working in that genre when Mo came along.

“She just had this ability to put images in your head that would not go away.

“There are some, especially from The Treatment, which are still in my head 20 years later. Her books are properly frightening and properly disturbing.”

Clare, who wrote under the name Mo Hayder, wrote 10 novels.

Shortly before her death, she wrote The Book of Sand, which will publish in 2022.

Meanwhile, in the 1970s, Clare rose to fame as a page three girl going by the name Candy Davis.

Earlier in her life she worked as an actress and model under the name Candy Davis and appeared as Miss Belfridge in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?.

As Candy Davis, she won the Miss Nude beauty pageant in 1982 and became a Page 3 model. As an actress, her first credit was as a stripper in an episode of Minder. She later played secretary Miss Belfridge in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? in the final two series from 1983 to 1985. She also appeared in the music video for the ABC song "Poison Arrow".

After a brief marriage to Gary Olsen she emigrated at 25 to Japan where she became a teacher of English as a foreign language in Tokyo. She was also a waitress at a nightclub and an amateur filmmaker.

 

Bibliography

Jack Caffery series

Birdman (2000)

The Treatment (2001)

Ritual (2008)

Skin (2009)

Gone (2010)

Poppet (2013)

Wolf (2014)

Stand-alone novels

Tokyo (2004), also published as The Devil of Nanking (2010)

Pig Island (2006)

Hanging Hill (2011)

Bonehead (2024)

Writing as Theo Clare

The Book of Sand (2022)

 

Filmography

Television

Year            Television            Episode(s)            Character Played

1982    O.T.T.            A short lived TV series presented by Chris Tarrant            Herself

1982    Minder            Rembrandt Doesn't Live Here Anymore            Stripper

1983    The Benny Hill Show   Holiday            Hill's Angel

1983    The Entertainers            Jeff Stevenson        

1983    The Comic Strip Presents            Five Go Mad on Mescalin            Janie

1983    The Two Ronnies            Episode 10.2  The Colonel's Niece

1984    Cannon & Ball            Episode 6.6    Herself

1984    Bottle Boys    Here Comes the Groom Deirdre

1983-1985            Are You Being Served?            Main characters, series 9 and 10            Miss Belfridge

1985    The Two Ronnies            Episode 11.3 

1985    The Two Ronnies            Episode 11.4  Miss Exotica Stormtrooper

1986    The Two Ronnies            Episode 12.3  Woman with Trevor

 

Film

Year     Title            Character

1983    Fanny Hill       Girl in bed (uncredited)

1985            Underworld            Barmaid