Stephanie Cole, veteran actress whose career ranged from a breakthrough role in Tenko to Coronation Street
She was not on the list.
Stephanie Cole, the actress, who has died aged 84, spent two decades treading the boards in provincial theatre before landing her breakthrough role in the BBC's wartime drama Tenko; she subsequently became one of British television comedy's favourite battleaxes.
Tenko (1981-84) was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore, when women trying to escape by sea were captured and interned in makeshift camps. Stephanie Cole was Dr Beatrice Mason – like many of the characters she played, not one to suffer fools gladly – in a series noted for its realism in depicting the dirty conditions endured by British, Dutch and Australian women from widely differing backgrounds.
Beatrice's fellow internees included the colonel's wife and reluctant leader of the British, Marion Jefferson (played by Ann Bell), the spoilt socialite Rose Millar (Stephanie Beacham), the mouthy cockney Blanche Simmons (Louise Jameson), the veteran suffragette Joss Holbrook (Jean Anderson) and the Dutch contingent's authoritarian leader Sister Ulrica (Patricia Lawrence). Burt Kwouk was the Japanese camp commander Major Yamauchi. The only make-up worn by the women represented boils, bruises, cuts, bites and dirt as they faced overcrowding, malnutrition, violence, disease and death.
By the time Stephanie Cole returned for the 1985 special Tenko Reunion, set five years after the PoWs' release, she had unleashed her talent for comedy. In the final two series of Roy Clarke's Open All Hours (1982 and 1985), she played Delphine Featherstone, a paranoid, morose customer clad in a black hat and long cloak who sets her sights on the stuttering Yorkshire shopkeeper Arkwright (Ronnie Barker) – unaware that he and Granville (David Jason), his nephew and assistant, call her the "Black Widow".
She later returned for Clarke's sequel Still Open All Hours
(2013-19), with Mrs Featherstone switching her attentions to Granville after he
inherits the shop following Arkwright's death.
The actress had still not turned 50 when she progressed to top of the cast list in the sitcom Waiting for God (1990-94) as Diana Trent, the down-to-earth, waspish retired photojournalist at Bayview Retirement Home. She was seen goading the lethargic residents into sharing her subversive outlook on life and found an ally in the widowed accountant Tom Ballard (Graham Crowden), eventually moving into his room.
In a 2019 Telegraph interview, the forthright star recalled asking the programme's producer-director, Gareth Gwenlan: "Why did you cast a man of the right age but a woman 20 years younger?"
His reply astonished her. "This was in the early 1990s," she explained, "and I promise you he said, 'Because no woman would have the energy at that age to do what we're asking you to do.' I was appalled."
Another starring role for Stephanie Cole, again playing beyond her years, was as the scatty Peggy Beare, being cared for by one of her sons, in Keeping Mum (1997-98). The sitcom, which also featured Meera Syal as her daughter-in-law, received lukewarm reviews but ran to two series.
Then, in Life As We Know It (2001), she and Richard Wilson
played Lizzie and Alex Cameron, an ageing couple trying to remain active while
coping with the challenges posed by their three grown-up children still living
with them.
In the first four series (2004-09) of Doc Martin, Stephanie Cole brought conviction to the role of Joan Norton, the motherly aunt of Martin Clunes's surgeon-turned-GP, Martin Ellingham.
Another cherished TV part had the actress combining drama,
comedy and pathos in Coronation Street to play Sylvia Goodwin, the
cantankerous, bossy mother of Roy Cropper (David Neilson), from 2011 to 2013.
Apart from mending a few bridges with Roy, the only human side of Sylvia to
emerge was her brief romance with Milton Fanshaw, a wealthy American played by
the former Man from U.N.C.L.E. star Robert Vaughn.
The actress was born Patricia Stephanie Cole in Solihull, Warwickshire, on October 5 1941. Her mother June, née Sheldon, was married to Leslie Cole, who left her several months before Stephanie's birth. Only in her mid-teens did her mother tell her that she had been having an affair with someone else, who was Stephanie's father. She searched for him later in life, only to learn that he had died seven months earlier.
When she was five, Stephanie moved with her mother and great-aunt Peg to Croyde, in Devon, where she was sent to boarding school. Her mother married her second husband, Colin Lees, two years later.
After they moved to Bitton, Gloucestershire, Stephanie Cole became a rebellious boarder at Clifton High School for Girls. Aged 15, she was expelled for throwing a Latin dictionary at a teacher who mocked her aspirations to act.
She learnt secretarial skills at the College of Commerce in
Bristol before spending two years training at the city's Old Vic Theatre
School. She made her stage debut in 1960 as a 90-year-old woman in The
Woodcarver, a play with the main company, alongside Leonard Rossiter. She then
joined the company as an assistant stage manager and actor.
In a 1998 Radio Times interview, she admitted to being "quite promiscuous" while there, adding: "Without a father, you don't know how to relate to men and think the way to do it is through sex."
Stephanie Cole moved on to other rep companies, including long stints at Salisbury Playhouse between 1964 and 1970.
Feeling her career was going nowhere, she gave up acting in 1972, a year before her marriage to Henry Marshall, a playwright and fight director. She learnt to play the guitar and speak Welsh, and worked as a bookbinder.
"There was an element of nervous breakdown," she said, "but it took place over such a long period it was more of a huge crisis of confidence."
Stephanie Cole resumed her theatrical career within a few years, although her marriage ended in divorce in 1986. She also underwent therapy during this time.
On stage, she was particularly thrilled to appear in the
West End as the tight-lipped headteacher Smale, alongside Glenda Jackson's
title character, in Andrew Davies's comedy Rose at the Duke of York's Theatre
in 1980. Another highlight of her stage career was starring as Betty in A
Passionate Woman, Kay Mellor's semi-autobiographical drama about her mother's
secret affair (Comedy Theatre, 1994-95). Stephanie Cole titled her 1998
autobiography A Passionate Life.
She began making an impact on television with small roles such as a solicitor, Mrs Bulstrode, in Emmerdale Farm in 1978, then played Mrs Major Gibbs, mother of two children growing up in the Salvation Army, in the Sunday-teatime serial Sally Ann (1979), written by Phil Redmond, and, after Tenko, Sarah Mincing in the children's Lilliputian fantasy The Return of the Antelope (1986-88).
One of her early sitcom supporting roles, in A Bit of a Do (1989), written by David Nobbs and starring David Jason and Gwen Taylor, was as Betty Sillitoe, half of a wealthy couple taking it in turns to get drunk at family events.
Her later sitcom parts included Nesta, potty-mouthed aunt of Greg Davies's hapless drama teacher, in Man Down (2014-17), and Marion, mother of Catherine Tyldesley's karaoke-loving character, in Scarborough (2019).
Other dramatic roles included Muriel Carpenter in Alan
Bennett's Talking Heads monologue Soldiering On (1988), the ancient, ill-fated
Dame Lettie Colston in Muriel Spark's Memento Mori (1992), and the po-faced
Aunt Ann Walker in Gentleman Jack (2019-22).
On the radio she played Ariadne Oliver to John Moffatt's Hercule Poirot and featured in two of the finest Radio 4 comedies of the new millennium: as Olive, the sweetly scathing pensioner in Ed Reardon's Week (2005-2021), and the acid-tongued airline owner Carolyn Knapp-Shappey opposite Roger Allam, Benedict Cumberbatch and Anthony Head in John Finnemore's Cabin Pressure (2008-14).
Stephanie Cole was appointed OBE in 2005.
Her second husband, the actor Peter Birrel, whom she married in 1998, died of cancer in 2004. She is survived by Emma, the daughter of her first marriage.
Stephanie Cole, born October 5 1941, died September 18 2026
Actress
Murder at Bigwig Manor
TV Movie
Stephen's Nanna
2023
Declan Donnelly and Anthony McPartlin in Ant & Dec's
Saturday Night Takeaway (2002)
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
6.1
TV Series
Stephen's Nanna
2023
4 episodes
Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack (2019)
Gentleman Jack
8.2
TV Series
Aunt Ann Walker
2019–2022
7 episodes
The House (2022)
The House
6.8
Great Aunt Eleanor (segment "I", voice)
2022
Greg Davies in The Cleaner (2021)
The Cleaner
7.1
TV Series
Vivien Hozier
2021
1 episode
Doctor Who: Beyond the Doctor (2021)
Doctor Who: Beyond the Doctor
Podcast Series
Narrator (voice)
2021
1 episode
A Cold Supper Behind Harrods (2021)
A Cold Supper Behind Harrods
Vera
2021
David Jason and James Baxter in Still Open All Hours (2013)
Still Open All Hours
6.4
TV Series
Mrs. Delphine Featherstone
2013–2019
41 episodes
Jason Manford and Catherine Tyldesley in Scarborough (2019)
Scarborough
6.4
TV Series
Marion
2019
6 episodes
Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith in Inside No. 9 (2014)
Inside No. 9
8.5
TV Series
Moira O'KeefeStephanie Cole
2018
1 episode
Rik Mayall, Gwyneth Powell, Greg Davies, Jeany Spark, Mike
Wozniak, and Roisin Conaty in Man Down (2013)
Man Down
7.6
TV Series
Nesta
2014–2017
18 episodes
Comedy Playhouse (1961)
Comedy Playhouse
7.1
TV Series
Pearl
2016
1 episode
Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures (2012)
Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures
8.2
Podcast Series
Marianna (voice)
2014
1 episode
Peter Adamson, Jean Alexander, Johnny Briggs, Margot Bryant,
and Doris Speed in Coronation Street (1960)
Coronation Street
5.6
TV Series
Sylvia Goodwin
2011–2013
159 episodes
Selina Cadell, Tuppence Middleton, and Tom Hughes in The
Lady Vanishes (2013)
The Lady Vanishes
6.1
TV Movie
Evelyn Floodporter
2013
George and Bernard Shaw
TV Movie
Hyacinth
2011
Martin Clunes in Doc Martin (2004)
Doc Martin
8.4
TV Series
Joan Norton
2004–2009
27 episodes
Frances McDormand and Amy Adams in Miss Pettigrew Lives for
a Day (2008)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
7.0
Miss Holt
2008
Annette Badland, Neil Dudgeon, and Nick Hendrix in Midsomer
Murders (1997)
Midsomer Murders
7.9
TV Series
Dorothy Hutton
2007
1 episode
Victoria Wood in Housewife, 49 (2005)
Housewife, 49
7.7
TV Movie
Mrs Waite
2005
Born and Bred (2002)
Born and Bred
7.6
TV Series
Prudence
2003
1 episode
Doctors (2000)
Doctors
4.5
TV Series
Doris
2003
1 episode
Back Home (2001)
Back Home
7.0
TV Movie
The Honourable Lady Beatrice 'Beattie' Langley
2001
Life as We Know It (2001)
Life as We Know It
5.6
TV Series
Lizzie Cameron
2001
7 episodes
Dexter in Other Animals (1999)
Other Animals
TV Series
Lizzie Cameron
1999
Pierce Brosnan and Annie Galipeau in Grey Owl (1999)
Grey Owl
6.0
Ada Belaney
1999
Martin Ball, Stephanie Cole, David Haig, Prunella Scales,
and Meera Syal in Keeping Mum (1997)
Keeping Mum
7.5
TV Series
Peggy Beare
1997–1998
16 episodes
Jackanory (1965)
Jackanory
7.2
TV Series
Storyteller
1996
1 episode
Jeremy Hardy Gives Good Sex (1995)
Jeremy Hardy Gives Good Sex
5.5
Video
1995
Stephanie Cole and Graham Crowden in Waiting for God (1990)
Waiting for God
7.8
TV Series
Diana Trent
1990–1994
47 episodes
Screen Two (1984)
Screen Two
6.7
TV Series
AliceDame Lettie Colston
1992–1994
2 episodes
Noel's House Party (1991)
Noel's House Party
6.3
TV Series
Ms Diana Trent
1992
1 episode
David Suchet in Poirot (1989)
Poirot
8.6
TV Series
Mrs Lacey
1991
1 episode
About Face (1989)
About Face
6.4
TV Series
Sheila
1991
1 episode
David Jason and Gwen Taylor in A Bit of a Do (1989)
A Bit of a Do
7.2
TV Series
Betty Sillitoe
1989
13 episodes
Rockliffe's Folly (1988)
Rockliffe's Folly
6.0
TV Series
Mrs. Pickering
1988
1 episode
The Return of the Antelope (1986)
The Return of the Antelope
7.9
TV Series
Sarah Mincing
1986–1988
24 episodes
Sharon Stone in Tears in the Rain (1988)
Tears in the Rain
5.8
TV Movie
Billie Cooper
1988
Room at the Bottom (1986)
Room at the Bottom
5.6
TV Series
Audrey
1988
1 episode
Talking Heads (1988)
Talking Heads
8.6
TV Mini Series
Muriel Carpenter
1988
1 episode
Fresh Fields (1984)
Fresh Fields
6.6
TV Series
Mrs. Robertson
1986
1 episode
Tenko Reunion (1985)
Tenko Reunion
8.2
TV Movie
Dr. Beatrice Mason
1985
Ronnie Barker in Open All Hours (1976)
Open All Hours
7.6
TV Series
Mrs. Delphine Featherstone
1982–1985
10 episodes
Affairs of the Heart (1983)
Affairs of the Heart
TV Series
Miss Cartwright
1985
1 episode
Paul Manvell in Jamie Running (1985)
Jamie Running
TV Movie
Ruth Edwards
1985
Stephanie Cole in Tenko (1981)
Tenko
8.5
TV Series
Dr. Beatrice Mason
1981–1984
30 episodes
Jackanory Playhouse (1972)
Jackanory Playhouse
8.0
TV Series
Aunt Beryl
1984
1 episode
Harriet Walter in Amy (1984)
Amy
7.8
TV Movie
Cis Johnson
1984
Terry and June (1979)
Terry and June
6.4
TV Series
Mrs. Hunt
1983
1 episode
Judy Loe and Prunella Scales in Singles (1983)
Singles
5.6
TV Movie
Mrs. Fisher
1983
Don Henderson, Diane Keen, Peter Sallis, and Don Warrington
in Crown Court (1972)
Crown Court
7.4
TV Series
Beatrice Padley
1983
3 episodes
Saturday Night Thriller (1982)
Saturday Night Thriller
7.4
TV Series
Jane Petrie
1982
1 episode
The Agatha Christie Hour (1982)
The Agatha Christie Hour
7.1
TV Mini Series
Princess Anna
1982
1 episode
BBC2 Playhouse (1973)
BBC2 Playhouse
6.7
TV Series
Gladys Flood
1981
1 episode
Christmas Spirits (1981)
Christmas Spirits
6.1
TV Movie
Mrs. Purvis
1981
Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
Tales of the Unexpected
7.6
TV Series
Miss Harrison
1980
1 episode
Richard Hurndall and John Shrapnel in Screenplay (1979)
Screenplay
7.2
TV Series
Mona
1980
1 episode
Alfred Burke, Simon Cadell, Adolf Hitler, Bernard Horsfall,
and Martin Jarvis in Enemy at the Door (1978)
Enemy at the Door
7.9
TV Series
Alice Glover
1980
1 episode
Sally Ann (1979)
Sally Ann
6.2
TV Series
Mrs. Major Gibbs
1979
7 episodes
The Glums (1978)
The Glums
5.8
TV Series
Counsellor
1979
1 episode
Gerry Cowper and Stephen Garlick in Two People (1979)
Two People
7.5
TV Series
Margery
1979
1 episode
Tropic (1979)
Tropic
7.4
TV Series
Miss. Dogfoot
1979
2 episodes
Play for Today (1970)
Play for Today
7.8
TV Series
EnidDr. Monday
1977–1979
2 episodes
That Summer! (1979)
That Summer!
6.3
Mrs. Mainwaring
1979
Agony (1979)
Agony
7.1
TV Series
Mrs. Manfield
1979
1 episode
Afternoon Off (1979)
Afternoon Off
6.9
TV Movie
Customer
1979
Building Sites Bite (1978)
Building Sites Bite
6.4
Short
Auntie (as Stephanie Coles)
1978
Francesca Annis in Lillie (1978)
Lillie
8.1
TV Mini Series
Agnes Langtry
1978
1 episode
Frank Finlay and Lucy Gutteridge in Betzi (1978)
Betzi
TV Movie
Mrs. Balcombe
1978
International Velvet (1978)
International Velvet
5.9
Teacher
1978
Googie Withers in Within These Walls (1974)
Within These Walls
7.0
TV Series
Kitty Fenner
1978
1 episode
Emmerdale Farm (1972)
Emmerdale Farm
4.9
TV Series
Mrs. Bulstrode
1978
6 episodes
The Fosters (1976)
The Fosters
7.0
TV Series
Receptionist
1977
1 episode
Murder Most English: A Flaxborough Chronicle (1977)
Murder Most English: A Flaxborough Chronicle
7.5
TV Series
Sister Horton
1977
1 episode
Adrian Dannatt in Just William (1977)
Just William
6.7
TV Series
Vicar's Wife
1977
1 episode
Ben Kingsley, Rosemary Leach, and Puneet Sira in The Velvet
Glove (1977)
The Velvet Glove
TV Series
Sybil Thorndike
1977
1 episode
Julie Dawn Cole and Janina Faye in Angels (1975)
Angels
6.6
TV Series
Miss Hombro
1976
1 episode
Jack Shepherd in Bill Brand (1976)
Bill Brand
7.7
TV Mini Series
Marjorie
1976
1 episode
Eskimo Nell (1975)
Eskimo Nell
4.4
Traffic Warden (uncredited)
1975
Angela Down, Liza Goddard, and Susan Jameson in Take Three
Girls (1969)
Take Three Girls
7.8
TV Series
Continuity Girl
1969
1 episode
Armchair Theatre (1956)
Armchair Theatre
7.7
TV Series
Betty Guess
1968
1 episode
Z Cars (1962)
Z Cars
7.1
TV Series
Sick Woman
1968
1 episode
Soundtrack
Stephanie Cole and Graham Crowden in Waiting for God (1990)
Waiting for God
7.8
TV Series
performer: "God Save the Queen"
1990
1 episode
Self
The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved (2024)
The Real Ken Dodd: The Man I Loved
Self
2024
Open All Hours 50 Years of Laughter (2023)
Open All Hours 50 Years of Laughter
Self (as Stephanie Cole OBE)
2023
Helen Flanagan and Sally Dynevor in Coronation Street Icons
(2019)
Coronation Street Icons
6.1
TV Series
Self
2020
1 episode
Lorraine Kelly in Lorraine (2001)
Lorraine
2.9
TV Series
Self - Guest
2019
1 episode
The One Show (2006)
The One Show
3.6
TV Series
Self (in photo)
2014–2019
2 episodes
Cat Deeley, Alison Hammond, Dermot O'Leary, and Ben Shephard
in This Morning (1988)
This Morning
4.3
TV Series
Self
2019
1 episode
Ken Dodd in Ken Dodd: How Tickled We Were (2018)
Ken Dodd: How Tickled We Were
7.4
TV Movie
Self
2018
Top of the Box (2018)
Top of the Box
TV Mini Series
SelfSelf - Mrs. FeatherstoneSelf - Betty Sillitoe ...
2018
3 episodes
Granada Reports (1980)
Granada Reports
5.9
TV Series
Self - Actress
2018
1 episode
ITV Evening News (1999)
ITV Evening News
4.5
TV Series
Self - Actor
2018
1 episode
Tim Healy in David Jason: My Life on Screen (2017)
David Jason: My Life on Screen
8.2
TV Mini Series
Self - Mrs Featherstone
2017
1 episode
Ken Dodd in Ken Dodd: In His Own Words (2017)
Ken Dodd: In His Own Words
7.9
TV Movie
Self - Friend & Actress
2017
Gregg Wallace and John Torode in Masterchef Goes Large
(2005)
Masterchef Goes Large
6.6
TV Series
Self
2016
1 episode
Aled Jones in Weekend (2014)
Weekend
3.2
TV Series
Self - Guest
2014
1 episode
David Jason in Open All Hours: A Celebration (2013)
Open All Hours: A Celebration
7.6
TV Movie
SelfSelf - The Black Widow
2013
Food in England: The Lost World of Dorothy Hartley
7.5
TV Movie
Self - Dorothy Hartley (voice)
2012
Breakfast (2000)
Breakfast
5.2
TV Series
Self - Actress
2011
1 episode
Lynda Bellingham, Jackie Brambles, Sherrie Hewson, Jane
McDonald, Coleen Nolan, Denise Welch, Carol McGiffin, and Andrea McLean in Let
Loose... The Very Best of 'Loose Women' (2008)
Let Loose... The Very Best of 'Loose Women'
Video
Self
2008
John Nettles Applauds
TV Series
Self
2008
2 episodes
Kaye Adams, Nadia Sawalha, Ruth Langsford, and Charlene
White in Loose Women (1999)
Loose Women
2.1
TV Series
Self
2007–2008
3 episodes
The Alan Titchmarsh Show (2007)
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
3.6
TV Series
Self
2008
1 episode
Paul O'Grady in The Paul O'Grady Show (2004)
The Paul O'Grady Show
5.4
TV Series
Self
2005–2007
2 episodes
Drama Connections (2005)
Drama Connections
TV Series
Self
2005
1 episode
Matthew Wright in The Wright Stuff (2000)
The Wright Stuff
4.4
TV Series
Self - Guest Panelist
2005
1 episode
Britain's Best Sitcom (2004)
Britain's Best Sitcom
7.2
TV Series
Self
2004
3 episodes
Eamonn Andrews in This Is Your Life (1955)
This Is Your Life
6.4
TV Series
Self
1985–2002
4 episodes
It's Your Funeral
TV Series
Self
2001
1 episode
All Over the Shop
TV Series
Self
1999
1 episode
Funny Women (1997)
Funny Women
6.5
TV Series
Self
1998
1 episode
Terry Wogan in Auntie's Bloomers (1991)
Auntie's Bloomers
5.2
TV Series
Self (uncredited)
1997
1 episode
Call My Bluff (1996)
Call My Bluff
6.0
TV Series
Self
1996–1997
3 episodes
Q.E.D. (1982)
Q.E.D.
6.3
TV Series
Self - Narrator (voice)
1996
1 episode
The Enemy Within
TV Series
Self
1995
That's Showbusiness (1989)
That's Showbusiness
4.8
TV Series
Self - Panelist
1995
1 episode
Heart and Soul
TV Series
Self
1995
1 episode
Ken Dodd: An Audience with Ken Dodd (1994)
Ken Dodd: An Audience with Ken Dodd
8.3
TV Special
Self - Audience Member (uncredited)
1994
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards 1994
TV Special
Self
1994
The Good Sex Guide (1993)
The Good Sex Guide
6.5
TV Series
Self
1994
1 episode
Pebble Mill at One (1972)
Pebble Mill at One
6.2
TV Series
Self
1994
1 episode
Holiday (1969)
Holiday
5.9
TV Series
Self
1994
1 episode
The British Comedy Awards 1992
TV Special
Self
1992
Terry Wogan in Wogan (1982)
Wogan
6.2
TV Series
Self
1989
1 episode
Victoria Wood in An Audience with Victoria Wood (1988)
An Audience with Victoria Wood
8.3
TV Special
Self - Audience Member (uncredited)
1988
Archive Footage
Declan Donnelly and Anthony McPartlin in Ant & Dec's
Saturday Night Takeaway (2002)
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
6.1
TV Series
Stephen's Nanna (archive footage)
2023
1 episode
Victoria Wood in Her Own Words
8.0
TV Movie
Self - Audience Member (archive footage, uncredited)
2020
Granada Reports (1980)
Granada Reports
5.9
TV Series
Self - Actress (archive footage)
2018
1 episode
News at Ten (1967)
News at Ten
5.5
TV Series
Self - Actress (archive footage)
2018
1 episode
Channel 4 News (1982)
Channel 4 News
6.9
TV Series
Self - Mrs Waite (archive footage, uncredited)
2016
1 episode
Sue Wallace Showreel
Short
Mrs Waite (archive footage, uncredited)
2014
Melvyn Bragg in The South Bank Show (1978)
The South Bank Show
7.1
TV Series
Self - Mrs. Waite (archive footage, uncredited)
2007
1 episode
Chris Barrie, Steve Coogan, Adrian Edmondson, and Jennifer
Saunders in More Great Comedy Moments (2003)
More Great Comedy Moments
7.3
Video
Diana Trent (archive footage)
2003

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