Penelope Keith has secured her place inBritish television as one of its premiere comedy stars. Not only is she extremely popular in hernative country, but also through her numerous television roles she has achievedenormous popularity and recognition in Canadaand the United States. Born April 2, 1940, in Sutton Surrey,Penelope Keith rose to fame playing likeable but pompous, and slightlyridiculous, upper-class women in such series as “The Good Life” and “To TheManor Born”.
The sitcom that brought Penelope Keith tothe attention of television viewers on both sides of the Atlanticwas “The Good Life” (a.k.a. “Good Neighbors”). Here she played Margo Leadbetter, the snooty,yet lovable wife of Jerry, the next-door neighbours to Tom and Barbara Good.
“TheGood Life” concernedTom and Barbara Good, a middle-class suburban couple who turn their home into aself-sufficient farm cum allotment growing their own food, keeping animals andmaking their own tools and equipment. The series starred Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall as Tom andBarbara, with Paul Eddington as Jerry Leadbetter. The show was an instant hit and provedenormously popular with viewers who found the whole back-to-the-land scenarioalluring. While each of the charactersproved extremely popular in their own right, it was the character of Margo whoviewers couldn’t get enough of.
In the initial episodes, Margo was merelya peripheral character there to make the odd comment on the episodesevents. But when one of the episodes wasrunning short, the series writers added a filler scene with her talking on thephone. Allowed more screen time than usual,Keith showed the characters worth to the series writers, who quickly gave thecharacter longer and longer scenes effectively building the character up from atwo-dimensional snob, to that of a fully realized three-dimensionalcharacter. Margo quickly establishedPenelope Keith as a top comedy actress and as they say, the rest was history.
“TheGood Life” enjoyed fourextremely popular seasons, and two specials, on British television from 1975 to1978, and as a result, each of the series stars went on to star in their ownhighly successful sitcoms.
If “TheGood Life” launched the career of Penelope Keith, then it was her nextseries that cemented her status as one of the premiere ladies of Britishcomedy.
In “ToThe Manor Born”, Penelope Keith played Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, awell-to-do, upper-class elitist who falls on hard times following the death ofher husband. So desperate are herfinancial straits that Audrey is forced to sell her husband’s huge GrantleighEstate and move out of its stately manor house and into its small, yet humble,coach-house on the grounds. To makematters worse, the new owner of the manor is nouveau-riche businessman, RichardDeVere, a man of Czech ancestry, whom Audrey views as rather common and vulgarbecause he made his millions in the wholesale grocery business.
While Audrey tries to come to terms withher new life, she has comfort in knowing that she still has her loyal, yetdecrepit butler Brabinger and her close friend Marjory Frobisher. But because of her deeply ingrained feelingsof superiority, and her natural tendency to want her own way, Richard andAudrey frequently clash. After the initial love-hate relationship that ensues,over time, Audrey mellows and begins to consider that she may have misjudgedDeVere as a romantic interest begins to develop. Finally, in the series final episode, Audreyand Richard marry and she is reinstated as the lady of the manor when Richard’sfortunes changed for the worse.
“ToThe Manor Born” ran for threehighly successful seasons from September 30, 1979 to November 29, 1981 onBBC. Starring alongside Penelope Keithwere Peter Bowles as Richard DeVere, Angela Thorne as Marjory Frobisher, JohnRudling as Brabinger, Daphne Heard as Mrs. Polouvicka, Michael Bilton as OldNed and Gerald Sim as the Rector.
Penelope Keith was next seen in the BBCsitcom “Sweet Sixteen” whereshe played 41-year-old Helen Walker who was the hard-headed boss of a buildingfirm. A no-nonsense woman who was use togetting her own way, she suddenly passionately falls in love with Peter Morgan,a man 16 years her junior.
Debuting on October 16, 1983, thissix-part series from “Midsomer Murders”writer Douglas Watkinson centered itself on the comic happenings in ageneration gap romance. While the serieshad moments of drama, its premise was firmly based in comedy despite therelationship moving from encounter to courtship to marriage and pregnancy injust six episodes. The central dilemmaof the series primarily lay with Helen and whether she would be able to retainher status as the big boss while embarking on a new life as a wife and motherto be.
The series featured Christopher Villiersas Keith’s love interest Peter Morgan and John Rapley as Arthur Poole, JoanBlackham as Jane, Victor Spinetti as Ken Green, Mike Grady as Doctor Ballantineand Matthew Solon as Helen’s son James. The series ran for six episodes on BBC from October 16 to November 20,1983.
After her initial successes on BBC,Penelope Keith was lured away by rival British network Thames Television, whereshe starred in four sitcoms, each which were specifically created for hertalents. The first of these appeared inJanuary 1985.
Written by Stanley Price, “Moving” was adapted from thepopular comedy play of the same name. Sarah and Frank Gladwyn have weathered the storm: they’ve raised theirchildren and now they’re alone, rattling around their big family house. However, the time has come for them torealize their capital, move to a flat and put the surplus cash to good use,like investing in a new career for Sarah. But first, they must sell their home, however Sarah doesn’t want to sellit to just anyone. It has to be theright person. Though, as it turns out,this is the last of their concerns as the prices drops out of the housingmarket, buyers don’t come through, cracks start appearing throughout the houseand in their marriage. Disaster strikeseven further when daughter Jane suddenly returns home from college and Sarahdiscovers that her sister is Prozac-happy. Everything is far from being sweetness and light.
Featured alongside Keith was well-knownBritish actor Ronald Pickup as husband Frank, Prunella Gee as Liz Ford, NatalieSlater as Eileen Lewis, Roger Lloyd-Pack as Jimmy Ryan, David Ashford as BillLomax, Eliza Hunt as Beryl Fearnely and Babara Wilsher as daughter Jane. “Moving”debuted on the ITV network on January 9, 1985.
Sadly “Moving”is largely viewed as a flop and was largely criticised by the British Press forwasting the talents of its two leads. The series quickly disappeared on February 13, 1985 after its initialsix-episode broadcast where ratings were rather lacklustre.
Keith’s next sitcom was the ITV/Thamessitcom “Executive Stress” whereshe played Caroline Fairchild. Marriedfor more than 25 years, Caroline and Donald Fairchild have seen five childrengrow and leave home. Donald commutesinto Londoneach day by train from their home in Buckinghamshire to his job at publishersGinsberg, while Caroline has been a stay at home mum. Now 30 years later Caroline decides to returnto work. While Donald thinks a nice part-timejob at a florist shop will suit her fine, Caroline has other plans. She has in mind a return to her former careeras a book editor. Much to her surprise,Caroline quickly lands a job as an export sales director with the glitzy OasisPublishing, owned by a USconglomerate called Frankland Corporation and the pushy Edgar FranklandIII. But, on the same day that Carolineis to start her new job, Oasis takes over Ginsberg Publishing and much to eachother’s shock, Caroline and Donald find themselves working for the samecompany. Because Edgar Frankland refusesto allow his staff to fraternize, the new sales and marketing director (Donald)and the editorial director (Caroline) must work closely together, but keeptheir marriage secret, arriving and leaving separately, alluding todifferent-name spouses, having separate home phone numbers installed and so on.
The weekly plots revolved around thisscenario until the middle of the second season when Edgar finally learned thetruth. Surprisingly, he not only decidesto keep both Caroline and Donald on, he makes them joint managing directors of UKoperations. “Executive Stress” debuted on October 20, 1986 and ran for 3consecutive seasons consisting of nineteen 30-minute episodes. Geoffrey Palmer initially starred alongsideKeith as husband Donald, but left after the first season, and was replaced byPeter Bowles for the remaining two seasons.
The series was highly praised on itsinitial transmission. The pacing of theepisodes was wonderful, with a great deal of material, and some memorablesequences and one-liners peppered throughout. The Times newspaper had this to say about the series third season:
George Layton’s sitcom ‘Executive Stress'(ITV, 8:30pm) returns with its amiable mixture of old-fashioned jokes andmildly progressive theme of a wife trying to be her husband’s equal inbusiness. Effortlessly played by Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the couplefollow the classic sitcom tradition of people who find it difficult to livetogether but for the sake of the series must never live apart. The mutualsparring may threaten to upset the relationship but in the last resort it neverdoes. We know that when Donald takes his secretary away on a business trip,wife Caroline will leap to the wrong conclusion. We equally know that it willonly be a comic ripple. As for the tension between her feminism and his malechauvinism, this is diffused into less than momentous matters like whose nameshould come first on the company notepaper. For all its subversive promise, theshow is as comfortable as a favourite armchair.
Perhaps the most successful of thesitcoms Penelope Keith did for Thames Television was “No Job For A Lady”, which saw Keith cast as newly electedLabour MP, Jean Price, making her first footings inside the Houses ofParliament. Life was far from glamorousfor Jean. As the MP for an inner-cityseat, she was extensively lobbied by her constituents and as a woman she alsohad to hold down three other positions – mother to her children, wife to herhusband Geoff and running the family home.
The series focused mostly on theparliamentary activities outside the main chamber with most of theaction-taking place inside Jean’s office – which she shared with Scotscolleague Ken Miller – in the lobby and in the various Westminster lounges. Representing ‘the caring face of politics’,Jean was an idiosyncratic soul, her rebellious tendencies ensuring that herpolitical friends and foes were sometimes indistinguishable. Her most recognisable opponent was Tory MPGodfrey Eagan played by George Baker. Other cast members included: Paul Young as Ken Miller, Garfield Morganas Jean’s party whip, Mark Kingston as Geoff and Nigel Humphreys as Harry.
“NoJob For A Lady” waslikened to “Yes, Minister” and provedquite popular with viewers not only in the UKbut also in North America. The series ran for 3 seasons, consisting of 6episodes apiece from February 7, 1990 to February 10, 1992. The highest ratings the programme enjoyedwere actually for the opening episode of the first season, “Who Goes Home?” which achieved 14.4 million viewers and was rankedthe ninth most popular programme of the week.
After a two-year break, Penelope Keithreturned to British television in 1994 with the short-lived sitcom “Law and Disorder” on ITV from thepen of Alex Shearer. In this series,Keith starred as widowed barrister Philippa Troy, who when not turning inappearances at court was writing children’s books which featured the centralcharacter of Prickly Peter the Hedgehog (accompanied by a wide range of otherbizarrely named characters). Her sparring partner in court was the oily GeraldTriggs (played with aplomb by Simon Williams), and all their cases over thecourse of the series were presented before Judge Wallace (a memorable turn fromCharles Kaye). Eamon Boland appeared as Arthur Bryant, the instructingsolicitor, whilst other series regulars were Philippa’s clerk in chambers,Steven (John Junkin), and Emma Davies as her junior, Susan.
Episodes took commercial breaks during recesses in the trials being presented,and usually the commercial break would only take place after the Judge had madea recommendation to the Jury of a decent restaurant in which to eat lunch.
The Sunday Times newspaper had this tosay about the show:
In “No Job For A Lady’, Alex Shearercreated an amiable comedy in which Penelope Keith played a battling Labour MP.In Law And Disorder (ITV, 8:00pm), his new series, Keith plays a battlingbarrister. The job may have changed but not the humour, which is the samegentle, inoffensive stuff about a bossy woman holding her own in a male world.Keith’s antagonists this time include a snifly fellow barrister (SimonWilliams) and a stupid judge (Charles Kaye). The script often reads as ifRumpole had been hijacked by the Carry On team. “I can’t get anysatisfaction, my lord,” says Keith’s learned counsel, correcting the titleof the Rolling Stones’ hit. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” hislordship’s reply. It is only a pity Sid James is not around to add his filthyguffaw. With ‘No Job For A Lady’, Alex Shearer established himself as a sitcomwriter who could do more than stitch together Christmas cracker gags,especially if he had Penelope Keith to deliver the dialogue. Shearer wrote thisespecially for Keith, casting her as a barrister who cannot fail to be sharpand bright next to such old comedy chestnuts as the deaf court usher and thebumbling court judge (Charles Kay), possibly based on the real one that, in1981, asked someone to explain “exactly what is a Bananarama?”
While “Lawand Disorder” was a reasonably good sitcom, the series failed to find anaudience and quickly disappeared after its single season of six episodes.
After the rather disappointing “Law and Disorder”, Penelope Keith returnedto the BBC where she starred in “NextOf Kin” in 1995 with William Gaunt (“The Champions”).
Maggie (Keith) and Andrew Prentice(William Gaunt) have taken early retirement and are looking forward to spendingtheir last decades sipping good wine and enjoying the fine cuisine and clementclimate in their new home in France. Buttheir plans are interrupted by the death in a car crash of their estranged sonGraham and his humourless wife. As thenext of kin, the Prentices become the legal guardians of their threegrandchildren, Georgia(13), Graham (11) and Jake (5), and their menagerie of pets. It’s a situation that doesn’t prove to begreat, especially for Maggie who readily admits that she loathes children andwas never cut out for motherhood. Tomake matters even worse, the children are essentially miniature versions oftheir parents – indoctrinated as haters of humankind, anti-smoker crusaders andchampions of various modern-day concerns: whales, trees, the environment, etc.
“Nextof Kin” was essentiallya variation on several of the Thames sitcomsKeith had starred in where an elder couple is unexpectedly recast in the roleof parents. Despite this, the seriesproved to be reasonably popular airing for three seasons from 1995-97consisting of 22 episodes. AlongsideKeith and Gaunt, Ann Gosling, Matthew Clarke and Jamie Lucraft played thechildren, with Tracie Bennett playing Liz the housekeeper and Mark Powley ashandyman Tom.
In recent years Penelope Keith has beenconcentrating less on television and more on her home garden and duties as theUnder-Sheriff of Surrey. Though onSeptember 21, 2003, she returned to television in the comedy-drama “Margeryand Gladys” alongside “EastEnders”June Brown (Dot Cotton).
The Radio Times had this to say about theproduction:
A well-heeled widow goes on the run withher cleaner after accidentally killing a young intruder in this one-off comedydrama starring Penelope Keith and June Brown. The unlikely couple take to theroad and discover they have more in common than they could have imagined. Thisone-off comedy drama is unbelievably daft, but with two of our best-lovedactresses – Penelope Keith and June Brown – in the lead roles, it also hassuccess written all over it. The premise is a sort of British version of ‘ThelmaAnd Louise’. Keith plays posh widow Margery, stalwart of the localneighbourhood watch. Brown is Gladys, her less-than-thorough cleaning lady witha shady past. When the pair accidentally kills a young intruder in Margery’shome, they panic and go on the run in Gladys’ battered car. It’s hard enough tobelieve that a middle-class lady like Margery would do a runner after such anincident, as her natural instinct would be to call the police. But goinganywhere without her handbag? Well, I did say this was daft. However, Keith andBrown are entertaining, and the performances by the supporting cast are bothpreposterous and delightful. Roger Lloyd Pack is perfect as the detective aboutto retire, and so are Martin Freeman as his overly-zealous sidekick, AdamGodley as Margery’s cleaning-obsessed son, Peter Vaughan as Gladys’ne’er-do-well husband and Ken Morley as a seedy tabloid journalist.
The 100-minute production written by JohnFlanagan and Andrew McCulloch was intended as a pilot for a possible series.
Penelope Keith also appeared in the BBCRadio Four comedy-drama series “Agatha Raisin” based on the novelsof the same name by M.C. Beaton.
Since then, Keithhas regularly appeared on stage across Great Britain; including a role inNoel Coward’s “Star Quality”and in 2004 she played Madame Arcati in “BlitheSpirit” at the Savoy Theatre. In 2006, she appeared at the ChichesterFestival in the premiere of Richard Everett’s comedy “Entertaining Angels”, which she later took on tour. In2007 she played the part of Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest” on tour, whichtransferred to London’s West End in 2008 at the Vaudeville Theatre.
She has alsodone voice work, and has voiced many adverts including ones for Pimm’s Lurpakand grocery chain Tesco’s and most famously, the Parker Pen Company, which wasnamed one of the 100 Greatest Adverts in a Channel 4programme. In 1997, sheprovided the voice of the narrator for the “Teletubies”.
In 2007, Keithreturned to the role of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton – now Audrey DeVere and marriedto Richard DeVere in the one-off “To The Manor Born”Christmas and 25th Anniversary Special. The special also featured the return of Peter Bowles. The special was rumoured to be a pilot for anew “ToThe Manor Born” series, but sadly to date there have been nofurther adventures for the married DeVeres. In 2009 Keith presented “Penelope Keith and the Fast Lady”,a one-off documentary for BBC Four about Dorothy Levitt, the Edwardian motoringpioneer.
By Bob Furnell
RANDOMTVSTUFF 