Lynda Baron obit

Live: tributes pour in as EastEnders actress Lynda Baron dies

 

She was not on the list.

Tributes are flooding in after the death of popular TV actress Lynda Baron at the age of 82.

The EastEnders favourite starred in the soap from regularly between 2006 and 2009, and returned again in 2016.

She was the mother of Jane Beale and Christian Clarke in the hit BBC soap.

That role brought her fame - but she had already been an icon on British TV for many years before that.

She starred in the hit BBC sitcom Open All Hours alongside Sir David Jason and Ronnie Barker. It was one of the biggest TV shows of the 1970s. She also starred in Doctor Who and a host of other programmes.

A statement from Donna French, her agent of nearly 30 years, said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved client Lynda Baron.

“She was a wonderful actress and a great friend.

“Her iconic roles of Nurse Gladys in Open All Hours and Aunt Mabel in Come Outside were loved by all generations."

Our thoughts at CoventryLive are with the family and friends of beloved Lynda Baron who was adored in her roles as Auntie Mabel in Come Outside as well as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in BBC sitcom Open All Hours.

RIP Lynda Baron.

Lynda Baron, who has died aged 82, was well known to television viewers spanning the generations, but her comforting presence in comedy and children’s fare belied the fact that in reality she was a multi-talented grafter who excelled in every discipline.

Between 1976 and 1985 Baron played the formidable Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in Roy Clarke’s popular sitcom Open All Hours, continually spurning the nuptial ambitions of the tightfisted shopkeeper Arkwright (Ronnie Barker), with whom she enjoyed a comically fractious relationship.

Arkwright’s lust for Gladys was, Baron felt, a healthy repudiation of the idea that men idolise only slim women. “There are millions of big ladies out there married to men who think they’re wonderful,” she said. Some years after Barker’s death, the show’s other star, David Jason, headlined a revival – Still Open All Hours (2013-16) – which led to a return for Baron’s skilful comedic creation.

If Open All Hours ensured that she was a welcome fixture for the family audience, then Baron’s run as the cheery Auntie Mabel in the much loved and hugely successful BBC educational programme Come Outside (1993-97) meant that she became a firm favourite with children. Mabel, piloting a polka dotted light aeroplane (a Slingsby T67 Firefly) and accompanied by her dog Pippin, would discover how various everyday things worked for the benefit of the young audience.

Born Lilian Ridgeway in Urmston, Manchester, to Cyril, an interior decorator, and his wife, Lilian (nee Hawthorn), she started studying ballet aged four and attended Flixton girls’ high school as well as the Royal Academy of Dance. At 15, she said, “I realised there was so little room at the top in ballet, and being determined to get to the top I took up singing.” As a result, she began performing in pantomime at the Liverpool Empire, learning comic timing by watching from the wings every night.

She was soon singing and dancing at end of the pier shows, and by the time she was 17 she was in London performing at the Astor Club in Mayfair. She made her London stage debut in Dora Bryan’s Garrick theatre revue, Living for Pleasure, in 1958. Other revue work followed, including One Over the Eight (1961-62, Shakespeare Memorial theatre, transferring to the Duke of York’s) alongside Kenneth Williams (the writers included Harold Pinter, John Mortimer and Peter Cook) and by 1965 she was the regular chanteuse at the Talk of the Town, becoming its longest-running leading lady.

For television, in 1965 Ned Sherrin wrote the opening and closing numbers of the satirical sketch and revue programme BBC 3 (aired on BBC One) with her in mind, but despite the presence of Leonard Rossiter and Bill Oddie the show was not as successful as Sherrin’s earlier triumphs.

Comedy was a common feature of Baron’s subsequent television career, opposite Bill Maynard in Oh No It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1977), with Harry H Corbett in Grundy (1980), in a recurring role in The Upper Hand (1992-93), and in episodes of Dinnerladies (1998), Goodnight Sweetheart (1999) and Citizen Khan (2016). In addition, she was good value as herself, guesting on many shows, including Blankety Blank (1983-87) and Countdown (2008).

She also appeared in TV dramas: from the thriller Breaking Point (1966) to Doctors (nine episodes, 2000-14), via guest spots in everything from Z-Cars (1971) to Father Brown (2017). She was part of the ensemble cast of Fat Friends (2002-05) and her intermittent association with EastEnders – playing Jane Beale’s mother, Linda Clarke – lasted from 2006 to 2016.

For Doctor Who she belted out the ballad that narrated the action in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters, a Western pastiche, with William Hartnell, and then had a ball as the sadistic, immortal space pirate, Captain Wrack, in Enlightenment (with Peter Davison, 1983). She returned as the cheery shop worker Val, befriending Matt Smith as he battled Cybermen in Closing Time in 2011.

For her tour de force turn as Violet Carson in the BBC Four play The Road to Coronation Street in 2010, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Bafta. Her film work included the Hammer horror Hands of the Ripper (1971), Barbra Streisand’s Yentl (1983), Carry On Columbus (1992), Woody Allen’s Scoop (2006), and Dream Horse (with Damian Lewis, 2020).

On stage she proved adept in musicals including Little Me (Prince of Wales, 1984-85), Stepping Out (Duke of York’s, 1985-86) and Follies (Shaftesbury theatre, 1987-89), in which she gave a showstopping rendition of Who’s That Woman as an ageing but still glamorous hoofer proving she’s still got it with light-footedness, expert tap, cussed verve and sassy elan.

She also proved adept at farce in Ray Cooney’s Funny Money (Playhouse theatre, 1995) and Rookery Nook (Menier Chocolate Factory, 2009), and enjoyed starring opposite Zoë Wanamaker in Stevie (Chichester Festival theatre, transferring to the Hampstead, 2005) and Orlando Bloom in David Storey’s In Celebration at the Duke of York’s (2007). She was also a regular in pantomime, excelling as a raucously thigh-slapping principal boy.

Her 1962 marriage to the hairdresser and music impresario Carol London (real name Cyril Smith) ended in divorce. In 1966 she married the jazz pianist and musical director John Lee; he died in 2001. Her two children, Sarah and Morgan, survive her.

Filmography

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1963      The Small World of Sammy Lee Yvette  

1964      Hide and Seek   Flying Jacket      

1968      Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter             Miss Fisher         

1968      Hot Millions        Louise the Waitress        

1969      Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?   Baby Boobala Salesgirl                 Uncredited

1971      Universal Soldier              Party Guest        Uncredited

1971      Hands of the Ripper        Long Liz               

1973      Tiffany Jones      Anna Karekin     

1983      Yentl      Peshe   

1992      Carry On Columbus         Meg      

2001      Diggity's Treasure            Emma Stamps   

2005      Colour Me Kubrick           Mrs. Vitali           

2006      Scoop    Tenant

2010      You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger            Alfie's Date        

2012      Run for Your Wife            Nurse    Cameo

2017      Mary and the Witch's Flower      Great-Aunt Charlotte     Voice

2020      Dream Horse      Elsie      

 

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1962      The Rag Trade    June      

1966      Doctor Who        Singer   Episode: "The Gunfighters"

1976–1985          Open All Hours Nurse Gladys Emmanuel               Regular; 25 episodes

1977      Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt            Vera Parkinson

1978      Crossroads          Phoebe Tompkins           

1983      Last of the Summer Wine             Lilly Bless Her     Episode: Getting Sam Home

Doctor Who        Captain Wrack   Episode: "Enlightenment

1992–1993          The Upper Hand               Aunty Pat           

1993–1997          Come Outside    Auntie Mabel     Regular; 40 episodes

1996      New Voices         Barmaid              

1997      Coronation Street            Renee Turnbull Guest

1998      Dinnerladies       Carmel Episode: "Scandal"

2000      The Bill Sadie Tyler          Episode: "Catch a Falling Star

Big Kids                 Aunt Muriel        Episode: "Aunt Muriel"

2002–2005          Fat Friends          Norma Patterson              Regular; 19 episodes

2005      Rome    Madame              1 episode

2006,

2008–2009,

2016      EastEnders          Linda Clarke        Recurring; 32 episodes

2009      Casualty               Molly     Episode: "As Others See Us"

2010      The Road to Coronation Street   Violet Carson    

Agatha Christie's Marple               Mrs. Coppins      Episode: "The Pale Horse"

Doctors                Ag Penrose         9 episodes

2011      Doctor Who        Val          Episode: "Closing Time"

2013–2016          Still Open All Hours          Nurse Gladys Emmanuel               Regular; 13 episodes

2014      Chasing Shadows                             Regular; 4 episodes

2016      Citizen Khan       Clarenza               1 episode

2017      Father Brown     Mrs Rudge          Episode #5.12 "The Theatre of the Invisible"