Mary Isobel Sugden (21 July 1922 – 1 July 2009) was an English comedy actress, known as Mollie Sugden, who was best known for playing Mrs. Slocombe in the popular and long running British sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1985. Passed away after a long illness today at the age of 86.

She later reprised this role for Grace & Favour (titled Are You Being Served? Again! in the United States), which ran from 1992 to 1993. Sugden also appeared in The Liver Birds and Coronation Street.

Mollie Sugden's first regular sitcom role was from 1962 to 1966 when she played Mrs. Crispin in the sitcom Hugh and I. Mollie Sugden's big break that gave her nationwide fame was the part of Mrs Slocombe in the popular and long-running Are You Being Served?, which ran from 1972 to 1985. In 1978, From 1965 to 1976, she intermittently played Nellie Harvey, the land-lady of The Laughing Donkey pub, in Coronation Street where she often appeared opposite Annie Walker, landlady of the Rovers Return.

Mollie Sugden also played main roles in other sitcoms, including That's My Boy, that ran from 1981 to 1986 and My Husband and I. My Husband and I ran from 1987 to 1988 and she played opposite her husband William Moore, whom she married on 29 March 1958 having met him at Swansea rep. They had twin sons, Robin and Simon. Moore died in 2000.

The revival of re runs of 'Are You Being Served' enabled Mollie Sugdens character cult status along with Mr Humphreys throughout younger generations in the UK and the US.

Mollie Sugden is survived by her twin sons.

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Wendy Richards - RIP

Posted On 03-10-2009 , 10:31 AM

I was saddened today when I read news that Wendy Richards (aka Miss Brahms - Are You Being Served) has passed away at the age of 65 February 26th after losing a long battle with Cancer. The funeral services were held March 9th, 2009. Many of you may only know her from the hit sitcom, but many of us fondly remember her character on Eastenders, the popular english soap. As Pauline Fowler, she played the matriach of the family, keeping it together and proividing the iron fist and stability to the many problems that affected the fam. Her character dealt with many touchy subjects before it was popular to discuss them openly, the son infected with HIV, a pregnant teenager who wouldn't reveal the father. Teenage drug and alcohol abuse, husband in prison for a crime he didn't commit. For years we have watched Wendy Richards play this gritty, solid and sometime unlikeable character. It was a far cry from the glamorous Miss Brahms character, Pauline Fowler never in heels or short skirts but rather the grungy cardigan and worn look

on her face. I remember watching the first episode of Eastenders years ago and thinking this show was going to be great, after moving to the US I was happy to see that it was on BBC America, but unfortunately it was removed probably because it differs so much from American soaps and people found it depressing. There is nothing quite like watching Eastenders on a Sunday afternoon whilst cooking the Sunday dinner. Eastenders is not the same without Wendy Richards who appeared in the show since its beginning and she leaves large shoes to be filled.

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Updates

Posted On 12-30-2008 , 4:37 PM

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, I know i did, it was kind of hectic. I have received some emails wondering why I hadn't updated my Blog and if I was still updating my site, let me tell you that I am. Whilst its true that I haven't added any blogs lately I have been busy working on new pages, I have introduced a new subject called 'Spotlight' where I hope to add pages that have short bio's on some famous and some of my favorite British actors, I recently added Margaret Rutherford and David Tomlinson, both were famous for the character acting and left us with some memorable performances. I especially like Margaret Rutherford in her adaptaion of Miss Marple, you will see that I have blogged about her before, she is a favorite. I also have recently added another quiz, this one is to test your knowledge on James Bond, I am hoping to regulary add trivia quizes if time allows. So go ahead, its just for fun, see how much you know.

P.S. I hope you noticed the new addition to my site, when you look in the address box and the tab, to see the moving film strip, I can't take credit for it, a good webmaster friend who is rather artistic shared the coding with me, so I have to give her a shout out, if you like creating please check out her site at Crafty Artworld

Heres wishing you all A Happy New Year!!

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Donald Pleasence - From My Home Town

Posted On 10-22-2008 , 4:14 PM

Donald Pleasence (1919-1995)

Local Boy Makes Good

Working on my site extends to me the pleasure of often learning new things about people of films that I didn’t know about before, a few days ago whilst visiting another movie site to read their news I was surprised to find that Donald Pleasance OBE was born in Nottingham. Why should that be so interesting to me, I hear you ask?

Well, let me tell you, even though I now reside in the States I was born and raised in Nottingham, UK. Even though I have been a British expatriate for a few years now, you can never totally take out the feeling of your home roots.

There are a few famous people from Nottingham, Eric Coates (1886-1957)the famous composer ( composed the theme music for the movie The Dam Busters) is from the same mining town that I am from, the famous bare knuckle fighter Ben Caunt (1815-1861) was also a local celebrity from my home town of Hucknall, and let’s not forget Lord Byron whose ancestral home is approximately 2 miles down the road from my family home. If your ever bored Google or Wikipedia -Hucknall, you will find a local church St Mary Magdelene church where I was married, it’s a beautiful building the first portion was built around 1320. For more information and pictures check out this blog

Back to Donald Pleasance, you will mostly remember him as the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond Movie and then as the Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween.

He was born on October 5th, 1919 and sadly passed away February 2nd, 1995. Donald Pleasence OBE had appeared in over 200 movies, often playing the villain or psychopath. He was born in Worksop, Nottingham, his father was a stationmaster. He began acting in an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, but this was interrupted by World War II. At first he was a conscientious objector but later changed his mind and joined the Royal Air Force. He was shot down in 1944 and taken prisoner and tortured then placed in a prisoner-of-war camp, it was here that he produced and acted in plays. Some of you will remember that he later played a flight Lieutenant in the infamous movie The Great Escape.

After the war and with his bald head, hypnotic eye and intense voice he was often cast as an insane character, anyone who has seen his movies knows just how creepy and cool he played these characters. Surprising though is that Donald Pleasence also did voice over for Talespinners (a UK children’s story series) He played in many other British productions such as the BBC 1982 production of The Barchester Chronicles, he also did the voiceover for a British Public Information film ( The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water) this was intended to warn children against playing near water, apparently though it did give some children nightmares, he also played a murderer in an episode of Columbo, along with many other famous roles.

In Donald Pleasances' personal life, he was married four times and had five daughters; he died aged 75 in France from complication after a heart valve replacement surgery.

Donald Pleasance, you may have come from humble beginnings but you will forever be remembered for your fine acting skills and the ability to scare the crap out of us and making it look so easy.

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Go ahead, expand your horizons

Posted On 09-03-2008 , 4:49 PM

It never ceases to amaze me how many people won't watch a movie because its black and white, my kids and husband especially, the idea that because its old or not in color means that its boring is so incorrect. I think we can learn a lot from old classic movies, we can see some history, and by that I mean that we can see how society was at the time a movie was made, we can see what was acceptable or not to show on the big screen, we can get a sense of how movie technology has changed. Any flashy thrilling movie that you watch today is only there because people pioneered in years past to create and advance these technologies. I am so sad when my kids refuse to watch a classic movie with me, some of my best memories were as a child watching a Saturday afternoon flick with my mum. Alas, I guess thats a sign of getting older, when you look at a younger generation and start to reminisce about yesteryear. Maybe I am stuck in the past trying to regain some thing from my youth, who knows. All I know is that i get such enjoyment out of watching an old flick, the melodrama that is over acted by todays standards and the extravagant costumes and sets that were used I just find irresistible. So, if you have never watched an old move then go ahead and give it a chance, expand your horizons. You might just be surprised that you like them.

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