Career
Elizabeth Adare was born in 1949 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, of African immigrant parents from Sierra Leone where she was brought up until 1957. Always wanting to follow her family tradition of becoming a school teacher, she took up acting as a hobby before attending the Mountview Drama School. She made her stage debut in Zigger Zagger in 1967 with the National Youth Theatre. She worked in repertory theatre in Glasgow and Coventry and also with the National and Young Vic Theatres.
Adare had many walk-on parts and other small roles in television before featuring in an episode of The Expert for the BBC in 1971. Most notably she appeared in the science-fiction stage play "Time Sneeze" and in the feature films Father, Dear Father (1973) and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979).
In 1973, she landed the part of Elizabeth M'Bondo in the series The Tomorrow People which ran until 1979 and it became her most famous role. Adare also appeared in Within These Walls for London Weekend TV as well as 11 episodes of Crossroads. After The Tomorrow People series ended in 1979, Adare hosted About Books for Thames TV. And later appeared as Phillip's girlfriend in an episode of Rising Damp .
In 1983, Adare quit acting to settle down with her husband and child, took a new career as a child therapist and she now works as the head of a busy social services department in central London.
Leonard Rossiter was a British actor. He had a long career in the theatre but achieved his highest profile for his television comedy roles starring as Rupert Rigsby in the ITV series Rising Damp from 1974 to 1978, and Reginald Perrin in the BBC's The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979.
Connie Booth is an American actress and writer. She has appeared in several British television programmes and films, including her role as Polly Sherman on BBC Two's Fawlty Towers, which she co-wrote with her then-husband John Cleese. In 1995 she quit acting and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement.
Jane Asher is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in film and TV throughout her career.
Alexandra Doig is a Canadian actress. She played the title role in the science fiction television series Andromeda (2000–2005). She also played the lead female role of Rowan in the science fiction-action horror film Jason X (2001), the tenth installment of the Friday the 13th film series. Since 2015, Doig has appeared in the Aurora Teagarden mystery television film series on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.
The Tomorrow People is a British children's science fiction television series created by Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV Network, the series first ran from 30 April 1973 to 19 February 1979.
Gretchen Franklin was an English actress and dancer with a career in show business spanning over 70 years. She was born in Covent Garden, Central London. She played Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap opera EastEnders on a regular basis from 1985 until 1988. After this she returned to the show intermittently. These appearances became briefer and more widely spaced. Her final appearance was in 2000, when her character was killed off.
Rising Damp is a British sitcom, written by Eric Chappell and produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, which was originally broadcast from 2 September 1974 until 9 May 1978. Chappell adapted the story from his 1973 stage play The Banana Box. The programme ran for four series and a spin-off feature film of the same name was released in 1980. The series won the 1978 BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy. Rising Damp was the highest-ranking ITV sitcom in the BBC's 100 Best Sitcoms poll of 2004, coming in 27th overall.
Joan Noele Gordon was an English actress of Scottish descent and television presenter. She played the role of Meg Mortimer in the long-running British soap opera Crossroads from 1964 to 1981, with a brief return in 1983.
Richard Arthur Beckinsale was an English actor. He played Lennie Godber in the BBC sitcom Porridge and Alan Moore in the ITV sitcom Rising Damp. He is the father of actresses Samantha and Kate Beckinsale.
George Sewell was an English actor, best known for his television roles, but also active on stage and in films.
Anne Charleston is an Australian actress, notable for her career locally and in the United Kingdom in theatre and television. Charleston started her career in theatre in the mid 1950's, and has been a staple of the small screen since the early 1960s, starting with roles in telemovies, before making appearance in the various Crawford Productions series starting from the latter 1960s and 1970s and had several roles in series Prisoner
Gabrielle Drake is a British actress. She appeared in the 1970s in television series The Brothers and UFO. In the early 1970s she appeared in several erotic roles on screen. She later took parts in soap operas Crossroads and Coronation Street. She has also had a stage career.
Elinor Donahue is a retired American actress, best known today for playing the role of Betty Anderson, the eldest child of Jim and Margaret Anderson on the 1950s American sitcom Father Knows Best.
Gwyneth Strong is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Cassandra, the love interest and, later, wife of Rodney, in Only Fools and Horses (1989-2003), and for playing Geraldine Clough in seven episodes of EastEnders in 2016. She has also appeared in Shadows (1975), Angels (1976), Crown Court and Z-Cars, Play for Today (1980-1984) and Silent Witness (1996).
Liza Snyder is an American actress. She is known for her television roles, which include Officer Molly Whelan in the ABC series Sirens, Linda in the NBC sitcom Jesse, Christine Hughes in the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear from 2000 to 2006, and Andi Burns in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan from 2016 to 2020.
Jacqueline Denise Welch is an English actress, television personality, writer and broadcaster. Her roles include Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street (1997–2000), Steph Haydock in Waterloo Road (2006–2010), and Trish Minniver in Hollyoaks (2021–2022). Welch also appears as a regular panellist on the ITV chat show Loose Women.
Stephanie Leonidas is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the fantasy film MirrorMask (2005), the Syfy series Defiance (2013–2015), and the Crackle crime series Snatch (2017–2018).
Ellen Geer is an American actress, professor, and theatre director.
Diana King was an English actress who had a career on British television from 1939 to 1986. Born in Buckinghamshire, she was sometimes credited as Diane King.
Alexandra Elizabeth Roach is a Welsh actress best known for her roles as Becky in Utopia and DS Joy Freers in No Offence. She has also made appearances in series including Being Human, Inside No. 9, Black Mirror and Killing Eve.
