And Mollie Sugden completes the second three: RIP Mrs. Slocombe

[MadImmortalMan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8129617.stm

Actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86



Actress Mollie Sugden has died at the age of 86, her agent has said.

The TV star, best known for playing Mrs Slocombe in long-running BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?, died at the Royal Surrey Hospital after a long illness.

The Yorkshire-born actress's twin sons, Robin and Simon Moore, were at her bedside, agent Joan Reddin said.

David Croft, one of the writers of Are You Being Served?, remembered her as a "marvellous character" who would never turn down chances to make people laugh.

"She would never refuse any sort of comedy situation no matter how undignified it was she would always go along with it. She was marvellously funny," he said.

'Lovely person'

Actor Frank Thornton, who played Captain Peacock in the sitcom, told the BBC she was part of a very happy team.

"We all enjoyed each other's company, which, if you're doing comedy, is rather necessary," he said.

"You can't play comedy with people you dislike. Mollie, of course, was an excellent comedian."


Ms Reddin, who began representing Sugden in the 1960s, said the actress had become a "very close friend".

"She had had a long illness and various problems but it was very quick in the end. Her twin boys were with her and she faded away.

"She was a lovely, lovely person and I never had any trouble with her. She was a great professional."

Sugden, who lived in Surrey, was married to fellow actor William Moore.

But she never fully recovered from his death nine years ago, Ms Reddin said.

"They were very much in love. She started to go down when he died."


Born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in 1922, Sugden attended the local grammar school before training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

She went on to serve a long apprenticeship in repertory theatre before television gave her a taste of fame - and it was while treading the boards in 1956 that she met her husband.

They married two years later, when she was 35 and he was 39. Their twin sons were born six years later.

Sugden found early TV success with comedy series Hugh and I in 1962 and in Coronation Street as the gossiping Nellie Harvey.

But it was The Liver Birds in the late 1960s and early 1970s that enabled her to make her first real impact, as Nerys Hughes' snobbish mother Mrs Hutchinson.

And then in 1972 came Are You Being Served? and the role she became best known for - the blue-rinsed Betty Slocombe, with her affectation of middle-class gentility and her outrageous use of the double-entendre.

Sugden went on to have her own slot on consumer programme That's Life and even found new fame in the US where re-runs of Are You Being Served? transformed both Sugden and co-star John Inman into cult figures in the early 1990s.

[Phillip V]

Was she hot?

[Jaron]

Who?

[jimmy olsen]

 She was great on "Are You Being Served", my favorite British sitcom.

RIP

[HVC]

Great show. May you and your pussy rest in peace.

[Josquius]

Oh noes. Two somebodies in one week

[Jaron]

I don't think she counts for a celebrity trio.

[Sheilbh]

Was she hot?

She was great on "Are You Being Served", my favorite British sitcom.

American taste is weird.  We generally see 'Are You Being Served' as passable at best and Benny Hill as downright embarrassing

[HVC]

American taste is weird.  We generally see 'Are You Being Served' as passable at best and Benny Hill as downright embarrassing

Benny Hill sucked, but Are You Being Served was good. we didn't get much UK tv here, so we have littel to compare.

[jimmy olsen]

Was she hot?

She was great on "Are You Being Served", my favorite British sitcom.

American taste is weird.  We generally see 'Are You Being Served' as passable at best and Benny Hill as downright embarrassing

My Grama introduced me to it and she's a British expat.

[Sheilbh]

My Grama introduced me to it and she's a British expat.

She's also elderly.

[Josquius]

I don't think she counts for a celebrity trio.

Who was the third?

[Queequeg]

American taste is weird.  We generally see 'Are You Being Served' as passable at best and Benny Hill as downright embarrassing

I can quote Blackadder better than I can quote The Simpsons.  Surely Blackadder is still loved?

[grumbler]

American taste is weird.  We generally see 'Are You Being Served' as passable at best and Benny Hill as downright embarrassing

I must confess that it was on when I lived in blighty, and I thought it was far worse fare than even re-runs of Dad's Army, let alone Only Fools and Horses and, of course, the magnficent Yes, Minister.

I will admit that I thought Benny Hill was funny for a while, though he had no legs.

[Josquius]

American taste is weird.  We generally see 'Are You Being Served' as passable at best and Benny Hill as downright embarrassing

I dunno, I think Are You Being Served is regarded as one of those things so bad its good. A funny vision of another time.