Michele Dotrice

Last updated

Michele Dotrice
Born (1948-09-27) 27 September 1948 (age 75)
OccupationActress
Years active1960–present
Spouse
(m. 1987;died 2009)
Children1
Parents
Relatives Karen Dotrice (sister)

Michele Dotrice (born 27 September 1948) is an English actress. She played Betty Spencer, the long-suffering wife of Frank Spencer, portrayed by Michael Crawford, in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em , which ran from 1973 to 1978, and returned in 2016 for a special.

Contents

Career

Her first significant role was in the 1962 13-part BBC TV adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop in which she played Nell, [1] and she appeared in The Witches for Hammer Films in 1966. In 1970 she had starring roles in the horror thrillers And Soon the Darkness (1970) [2] and The Blood on Satan's Claw (1970). [3] Her other film appearances include Jane Eyre (1970) with George C. Scott [4] and the 1976 comedy Not Now, Comrade . [5]

It was her appearance in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em that made her a household name, and she played the role for five years from 1973. [6] [7] [8] In 2016, she reprised the role in a one-off special broadcast as part of the Sport Relief charity fundraiser event. [9]

Her other 1970s roles include Felicity in the Jason King episode "Buried in the Cold Cold Ground", and Lady Percy in the BBC productions of Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 in 1979.

In 1981 she took the leading role in the short-lived sitcom Chintz, which aired on ITV. [10] In 1987, Dotrice played the role of a new mother whose child was snatched in an episode of The Equalizer along with her future husband Edward Woodward. In the mid-1990s she appeared for several episodes in the period drama Bramwell . She appeared in the film Captain Jack (1999) with Bob Hoskins. She has made numerous guest appearances in well-known British television series, including Midsomer Murders (1 episode, 1998), Holby City (1 episode, 2002), Murder in Suburbia (as Cindy in Episode 6, Season 2, 2005), and the BBC daytime soap opera Doctors (1 episode, 2008). In addition, she made several appearances in a 2004 BBC comedy-drama entitled A Thing Called Love, set in Nottingham, which starred Paul Nicholls and Roy Barraclough among others.

In 2012 she toured in The Ladykillers , playing the role of Mrs Wilberforce. [11] In 2014, she played Pam Chandler, a suspected murderer, in the last episode of series three of Death in Paradise . [12] In 2015, she played Marion, mother to Christine in the "Inside No. 9" episode The 12 Days of Christine . [13] In 2016, she played Nancy, the faithful dresser and woman of all work to the main character, in the West End production of Nell Gwynn . [14] In 2017 she played Jessie in the stage musical The Girls at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End. [15]

In 2018 she returned to television playing Edna Friendship in A Very English Scandal .

ITV launched their new drama in 2020 McDonald & Dodds in which she played Mary Costair in the second episode of Series 1.

Personal life

Her parents were the actors Roy Dotrice and Kay Dotrice. She has two sisters, Karen Dotrice and Yvette Dotrice, who also followed their parents into acting.

Dotrice was married to actor Edward Woodward from January 1987 until his death in November 2009. [16] They have a daughter named Emily Beth.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1966 The Witches Valerie Creek
1970 And Soon the Darkness Cathy
1970 The Blood on Satan's Claw Margaret
1976 Not Now, Comrade Nancy Rimmington
1999 Captain Jack Deirdre
2016 Starfish Jean
2019A Very British ChristmasSandra
2020 Blithe Spirit Edna

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1961The Treasure SeekersPrincessEpisode: "Held to Ransom"
1961Operation FantailSusan ForestTV film
1961Vice VersaDulcie GrimstoneTV film
1961Adventure to OrderSandraTV film
1961–1962SignpostSchoolgirl8 episodes
1962 BBC Sunday-Night Play Barbara CahounEpisode: "The Happiest Days of Your Life"
1962 BBC Sunday-Night Play DaffEpisode: "To Whom It May Concern"
1962The FatherBerthaTV film
1962KatyClover CarrAll 8 episodes
1962–1963The Old Curiosity ShopNell TrentAll 13 episodes
1965 Love Story Jill AllenEpisode: "The Sad Smile of the Mona Lisa"
1966 Theatre 625 Vera AlexandrovnaEpisode: "A Month in the Country"
1966 Thirteen Against Fate SoniaEpisode: "The Consul"
1966 Out of the Unknown R747Episode: "Level Seven"
1966 Theatre 625 ThérèseEpisode: "Amerika"
1966 ITV Play of the Week JulieEpisode: "Julie's Gone"
1967 ITV Play of the Week Tess CosgroveEpisode: "On the Island"
1967Sir Arthur Conan DoyleVicky6 episodes
1967 Les Misérables Fantine3 episodes
1968 Late Night Horror Phrynne BansteadEpisode: "The Bells of Hell"
1968MiddlemarchDorotheaAll 7 episodes
1968 The Wednesday Play EmmaEpisode: "On the Eve of Publication"
1969 ITV Sunday Night Theatre JaneEpisode: "Toys"
1970 BBC Play of the Month IrinaEpisode: "The Three Sisters"
1970 The Wednesday Play EmmaEpisode: "Emma's Time"
1970 Jane Eyre Mary RiversTV film
1971 Jason King FelicityEpisode: "Buried in the Cold Cold Ground"
1971 The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes Mary HisginsEpisode: "The Horse of the Invisible"
1972The SextetAngeEpisode: "The Gregorian Chant"
1972VickieEpisode: "Night Duty"
1972Maggie FirebraceEpisode: "A Question of Degree"
1972Veronica SandsEpisode: "Follow the Yellow Brick Road"
1972BarbaraEpisode: "Stoker Leishman's Diaries"
1972MarionEpisode: "Stanley's Style "
1972Paula LelliotEpisode: "Disappearing Trick"
1972Claire RamsdaleEpisode: "Blur and Blank via Cleckheaton"
1973–1978 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em Betty SpencerAll 22 episodes
1973MenaceSharonEpisode: "Comfortable Words"
1974ZodiacJulie PrentissEpisode: "The Horns of the Moon"
1974 ITV Playhouse FrancesEpisode: "A Kind of Bonus"
1976 The Morecambe and Wise Show ConstanceEpisode: #9.2
1977 BBC Play of the Month Catherine WinslowEpisode: "The Winslow Boy"
1977 I'm Bob, He's Dickie VariousEpisode: #1.1
1979Morecambe and Wise at the BBCVariousEpisode: 7 February 1979
1979 Henry IV Lady Percy2 episodes
1981ChintzKate CarterAll 7 episodes
1986 The Equalizer Vanessa DanielsEpisode: "Heartstrings"
1988 Boon NikkiEpisode: "Peacemaker"
1995 Bramwell Lady Cora Peters5 episodes
1997 Q.E.D. Anna PetersEpisode: "Cause of Death"
1998 Midsomer Murders Felicity BuckleyEpisode: "Faithful unto Death"
1998 Vanity Fair Mrs. Sedley5 episodes
2000 The Mrs Bradley Mysteries Amy ParkinEpisode: "Laurels Are Poison"
2001 The Way We Live Now Mrs. Pipkin3 episodes
2002 Holby City Shirley ButlerEpisode: "Leopard Spots"
2004A Thing Called LoveBarbara Hopewell2 episodes
2005 Murder in Suburbia CindyEpisode: "Golden Oldies"
2008 Doctors Eileen MullinsEpisode: "A Pain in the..."
2009 Doctors Jane ShieldsEpisode: "Hello, Hello, Hello"
2010 Marple Mrs. HubbardEpisode: "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side"
2014 Death in Paradise Pam ChandlerEpisode: "Rue Morgue"
2014 Big School Rita GunnEpisode: #2.6
2015 Inside No. 9 MarionEpisode: "The 12 Days of Christine"
2016 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em: Special Betty SpencerComic Relief Special
2018 Grandpa's Great Escape Miss TrifleTV film
2018 A Very English Scandal Edna Friendship2 episodes
2020 McDonald & Dodds Mary CostairEpisode: "A Wilderness of Mirrors"
2021 The Cockfields Lyn2 episodes
2022The Royal Mob Queen Victoria 3 episodes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Jason</span> English actor (born 1940)

Sir David John White, known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He has played Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, Granville in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, as well as voicing Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows, the BFG in the 1989 film, and the title characters of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Saunders</span> English comedian

Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English actress, comedian, and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with her best friend and comedy partner, Dawn French. With French, she co-wrote and starred in their eponymous sketch show, French and Saunders, for which they jointly received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2009. Saunders later received acclaim in the 1990s for writing and playing her character Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Crawford</span> English actor (born 1942)

Michael Patrick Smith, known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English actor, comedian, and singer.

<i>Some Mothers Do Ave Em</i> British TV sitcom (1973–1978)

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1, created and written by Raymond Allen and starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice. It was first broadcast in 1973 and ran for two series, including two Christmas specials in 1974 and 1975. After a three-year absence, the programme returned for a third series in 1978 and again in 2016 for a one-off special. The series regularly garnered 25 million viewers and was broadcast in 60 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Quentin</span> English actress and presenter (born 1960)

Caroline Quentin is an English actress, broadcaster and television presenter. Quentin became known for her television appearances: portraying Dorothy in Men Behaving Badly (1992–1998), Maddie Magellan in Jonathan Creek (1997–2000), Kate Salinger in Kiss Me Kate and DCI Janine Lewis in Blue Murder (2003–2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy Scoggins</span> American actress (born c. 1953)

Tracy Dawn Scoggins is an American actress and model. She began her career in Elite Model Management in New York City and European modeling circuit. She returned to the United States and studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio in the late 1970s. In early 1980s, Scoggins began appearing on television and film, notable playing main roles in the short-lived television series The Renegades (1983) and Hawaiian Heat (1984).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Baxendale</span> English actress

Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, known for her roles as Rachel Bradley in the British comedy drama Cold Feet (1997–2003) and Emily Waltham in the American sitcom Friends (1998–1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Dotrice</span> British actor (1923–2017)

Roy Dotrice was a British actor. He played the antiquarian John Aubrey in the solo play Brief Lives. He won a Tony Award for his performance in the 2000 Broadway revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten, also appearing as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father Leopold in Amadeus (1984), Charles Dickens in Dickens of London (1984), and Jacob Wells/Father in Beauty and the Beast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Parkinson</span> British actress

Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in Channel 4's The IT Crowd comedy series as Jen Barber, for which she received a British Comedy Best TV Actress Award in 2009 and 2014, and was nominated twice for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, winning in 2014. Parkinson studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has appeared on stage in the plays The Seagull (2007), Cock (2009), and Home, I'm Darling (2018), for which she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scarlett Strallen</span> English actress (b. 1982)

Scarlett Aimee Vaigncourt-Strallen is an English stage actress, best known for her work in musical theatre productions in the West End and on Broadway. She has received two Olivier Award nominations, in 2006 for her portrayal of Josephine in an adaptation of H.M.S. Pinafore, performed at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and in 2012 for her role in Singin' in the Rain. Strallen is also a former voice actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Caldicot</span> British actor

Richard Caldicot was an English actor famed for his role of Commander Povey in the BBC radio series The Navy Lark. He also appeared often on television, memorably as the obstetrician delivering Betty Spencer's baby in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

Deddie Davies was a Welsh character actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gemma Arterton</span> British actress (born 1986)

Gemma Christina Arterton is a British actress and producer. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature film debut in the comedy St Trinian's (2007). She portrayed Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008), a performance which won her an Empire Award for Best Newcomer, and spy Pollyana "Polly" Wilkins / Agent Galahad in the action war film The King's Man (2021).

Raymond John Allen was a British television screenwriter and playwright. He was best known for creating the 1970s BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. He wrote comedy sketches for entertainers Frankie Howerd and Dave Allen, and later Max Wall, Little and Large and Hale and Pace.

Barbara Mitchell was an English actress who became a familiar face on British television in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her work in many classic sitcoms of the period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Hylton</span> British actress (1927–1979)

Jane Hylton was an English actress who accumulated 30 film credits, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, before moving into television work in the latter half of her career in the 1960s and 1970s.

Jessica Swale is a British playwright, theatre director and screenwriter. Her first play, Blue Stockings, premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2013. It is widely performed by UK amateur companies and is also studied on the Drama GCSE syllabus. In 2016, her play Nell Gwynn won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, after it transferred from the Globe to the West End, starring Gemma Arterton as the eponymous heroine. She also wrote and directed the feature film Summerland (2020).

Nell Gwynn is a play by the British playwright Jessica Swale, begun in 2013 and premiering at Shakespeare's Globe from 19 September to 17 October 2015. It deals with the life of Nell Gwynn, mistress of Charles II, and her part in the theatre of the 17th century. Gugu Mbatha-Raw played the title role in the production debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The 12 Days of Christine</span> 2nd episode of the 2nd series of Inside No. 9

"The 12 Days of Christine" is the second episode of the second series of British black comedy anthology series Inside No. 9. It first aired on 2 April 2015 on BBC Two. It was written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, and directed by Guillem Morales. The episode tells the story of Christine, a young woman living in a small flat, over 12 years in her life, focussing on key days and life events in that time. Christine is played by Sheridan Smith, while those who play an important part in her life are played variously by Tom Riley, Stacy Liu, Michele Dotrice, Paul Copley, Pemberton, Jessica Ellerby, Joel Little and Dexter Little. Shearsmith plays the Stranger, an unknown figure apparently haunting Christine.

Laura Pitt-Pulford is a British actress, best known for her work in musical theatre and for playing Carol Butler in Emmerdale.

References

  1. The Old Curiosity Shop bbc.co.uk, retrieved 15 October 2017
  2. And Soon the Darkness tcm.com, retrieved 15 October 2017
  3. The Blood on Satan's Claw tcm.com, retrieved 15 October 2017
  4. Jane Eyre tcm.com, retrieved 15 October 2017
  5. Not Now, Comrade tcm.com, retrieved 15 October 2017
  6. Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em comedy.co.uk, retrieved 15 October 2017
  7. Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em bbc.co.uk, retrieved 15 October 2017
  8. Lewis, Roz. "Where are they now... ? 'Some Mothers Do ’Ave' ’Em actress Michele Dotrice" Express, 22 October 2016
  9. "Michael Crawford to reprise Frank Spencer for Sport Relief". BBC News. 17 February 2016.
  10. Chintz comedy.co.uk, retrieved 15 October 2017
  11. Paton, Maureen. "I'm the luckiest lady alive says Michele Dotrice" Express, 22 October 2012
  12. " 'Death in Paradise', Episode 8" bbc.co.uk, retrieved 15, 2017
  13. "The 12 Days of Christine". BBC. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  14. Billington, Michael. " 'Nell Gwynn' review – Gemma Arterton sparkles in chaotic comedy" The Guardian, 12 February 2016
  15. Shenton, Mark. " 'The Girls', Musical by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, to Premiere in West End" Playbill , 16 September 2016
  16. Equalizer Star Dies Archived 1 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine