| Josephine Tewson | |
| Birth Name: | Josephine Ann Tewson |
| Birth Date: | 26 February 1931 |
| Birth Place: | Hampstead, London, England |
| Death Place: | Northwood, London, England |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1952–2019 |
Josephine Ann Tewson (26 February 1931 – 18 August 2022) was an English actress, known for her roles in British television sitcoms and comedies. She portrayed Edna Hawkins ("Mrs H") on Shelley (1979–1982), Jane Travers in Clarence (1988), and Miss Lucinda Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine (2003–2010). She portrayed the frequently put-upon neighbour Elizabeth "Liz" Warden in Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995). Tewson's professional career lasted more than 65 years, from 1952 until her retirement in 2019.
Tewson, an only child, was born on her father's twenty seventh birthday in Hampstead, London, on 26 February 1931.[1] [2] Her father, William (1904–1965) was a professional musician and played the double bass in the BBC Symphony Orchestra;[3] her mother, Kate (née Morley, 1908–1999), was a nurse, the daughter of footballer Haydn Morley, who captained The Wednesday in the 1890 FA Cup Final.[4] After grammar school, Tewson studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art[5] from which she graduated in 1952.[6]
Tewson began acting on the London stage in the 1950s and remained active in theater productions throughout her professional career. She appeared on television during the 1960s with semi-regular appearances on shows like Z-Cars, The Dick Emery Show, and The Charlie Drake Show. She was a regular comedy performer in sketches on David Frost on Sunday and Hark at Barker (1969–1970).
She later appeared in Mostly Monkhouse, a BBC Radio comedy with David Jason and Bob Monkhouse. During the 1970s she had significant roles in comedy sitcoms including Six Dates with Barker, Coppers End (1971), and 1977's Odd Man Out with John Inman playing his half-sibling. She co-starred in No Appointment Necessary with Roy Kinnear; the tapes of which have been lost or destroyed.[7] Tewson played Edna Hawkins (usually referred to as "Mrs H" by Shelley) in the first six series of the British sitcom Shelley (1979–82).[8] Later, she played Jane Travers in Ronnie Barker's last starring television role before his retirement, the sitcom Clarence (1988), which he wrote.[9] [10] She appeared as two characters in the 1984 children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman, as Gabrielle's father's housekeeper Mrs. Briggs, and as the Fairy Godmother.[11]
Tewson was rumoured to be Inman's cousin though she denied this in several interviews.[12]
Tewson's most prominent role was as Elizabeth "Liz" Warden, neighbour and reluctant confidante of social wannabe Hyacinth Bucket in the comedy series Keeping Up Appearances, written by Roy Clarke. She appeared semi-regularly as Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine (2003–2010), a series also written by Clarke.[13] She appeared in two episodes of the documentary series Comedy Connections, talking about her work in Keeping Up Appearances (2004) and opposite The Two Ronnies (2005).[14] In 2009, she played Iris in the radio drama Leaves in Autumn written by Susan Casanove, produced by the Wireless Theatre Company.[15]
Other television appearances included an episode of Heartbeat ("Closing The Book", 2002), and as competition judge Samantha Johnstone in the mystery drama Midsomer Murders ("Judgement Day", 2000). She appeared in two episodes of Doctors as kleptomaniac Audrey Wilson ("Now You See It...", 2009), and as Marjorie Page, a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease ("The Bespectacled Bounder", 2012). Tewson played a school teacher in a Sugar Puffs "I Want My Honey" advert during the late 1980s/early 1990s.[16] Just after the end of Keeping Up Appearances, she played a nanny in a 30-second commercial for Nabisco Fruit Newtons, widely aired in 1997 in the United States.[17]
In 2012 Tewson launched her one-woman show, Still Keeping Up Appearances?, and toured the UK until her retirement in early 2019.[18] [19]
Tewson married actor Leonard Rossiter in 1958. They divorced in 1961.[20] She married dental surgeon Henry Newman in 1972. Newman died in 1980.[21] Tewson died at Denville Hall, a retirement home in London for actors and other entertainment professionals, on 18 August 2022, aged 91.[22] [23]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | The Troublesome Double | Mrs Wentworth | |
| 1977 | The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It | Miss Hoskins | |
| 1978 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Nun | |
| 1984 | Gabrielle and the Doodleman | Mrs Briggs/Fairy Godmother | |
| 1989 | Wilt | Miss Leuchars | |
| 2000 | The Mumbo Jumbo | Miss Hodges | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Preview | Joan Garnett | Episode: "Marriage Bureau" |
| Charlesworth | Mrs. Furse | Episode: "Long Hot Spell" | |
| 1963 | ITV Play of the Week | Barmaid | Episode: "Double Stakes" |
| No Hiding Place | Mavis Peters | Episode: "Four Faces of Clare" | |
| First Night | Mrs Tullet | Episode: "The Initiation" | |
| Z-Cars | Elizabeth Hepton | Episode: "Wait for It" | |
| 1964 | No Hiding Place | June Merrall | Episode: "The Things Money Can Buy" |
| 1965 | The Sullavan Brothers | WPC | Episode: "The Outsider" |
| Z-Cars | Mrs. Rogers | Episode: "The Mice Will Play" | |
| Emergency-Ward 10 | Mrs. Close | 5 episodes | |
| 1966 | Sergeant Cork | Martha St. Clair | Episode: "The Case of the Devil's Daughter" |
| 1967 | Emergency-Ward 10 | Dr. Saunders | Episode: "Devil Doll" |
| Mrs Thursday | Dulcie Ainsworth | Episode: "The Old School Tie Up"[25] | |
| 1968 | Z-Cars | Muriel Finch | Episode: "Aren't Policemen Wonderful: Part 2" |
| The Charlie Drake Show | Various | 6 episodes | |
| Frost on Sunday | Various | 14 episodes | |
| 1969 | The Champions | Hotel switchboard operator | Episode: "The Night People" |
| 1969–1970 | Hark at Barker | Mildred Bates | All 15 episodes |
| 1969–1979 | The Dick Emery Show | Various | 15 episodes |
| 1970 | ITV Saturday Night Theatre | Gladys | Episode: "Suffer Little Children" |
| 1971 | Six Dates with Barker | Travers | Episode: "1937: The Removals Person" |
| Copper's End | WPS Penny Pringle | 13 episodes | |
| 1971–1981 | The Two Ronnies | Various | 5 episodes |
| 1972 | His Lordship Entertains | Mildred Bates | All 7 episodes |
| 1973 | Comedy Playhouse | Lady Cynthia | Episode: "Elementary My Dear Watson" |
| Whoops Baghdad! | Fatima | Episode: "The Wazir Takes a Wife" | |
| It's Tarbuck | Various | 6 episodes | |
| Son of the Bride | Miss McDowdie | All 6 episodes | |
| Casanova '73 | Mrs Kershaw | Episode: #1.3 | |
| Tell Tarby | Various | 6 episodes | |
| 1974 | Thriller | Yvonne | Episode: "A Coffin for the Bride " |
| 1975 | Tarbuck and All That! | Various | 5 episodes |
| Wodehouse Playhouse | Mabel Potts | Episode: "Rodney Fails to Qualify" | |
| Dawson's Weekly | Cleoberry | Episode: "Stage-Struck" | |
| Larry Grayson | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1976 | Happy Ever After | Mrs Robins | Episode: "Mistaken Identikit" |
| Lucky Feller | Shirley | Episode: "Where There's Life There's Soap" | |
| 1977 | Whodunnit? | Miss Frisby | Episode: "No Happy Returns" |
| No Appointment Necessary | Penelope Marshall | All 7 episodes | |
| Odd Man Out | Dorothy Sutcliffe | All 7 episodes | |
| 1979 | Rings on Their Fingers | Mrs Harris | Episode: "Home Market" |
| 1979–1984 | Shelley | Edna Hawkins | 23 episodes |
| 1983 | Terry and June | Brenda | Episode: "A Day in Boulogne" |
| Tears Before Bedtime | Beatrice | Episode: "Show Me the Way to Leave Home" | |
| 1985 | The Caucasian Chalk Circle | Various | TV film |
| Terry and June | Mrs Robins | Episode: "Mistaken Identity" | |
| 1987 | Rude Health | Mrs Thorpe | 8 episodes |
| 1988 | Clarence | Jane Travers | All 6 episodes |
| 1990–1995 | Keeping Up Appearances | Elizabeth "Liz" Warden | 43 episodes |
| 1994 | Coronation Street | Peggy Phillips | 2 episodes |
| 1999 | Sunburn | Louise Montague | Episode: #1.1 |
| 2000 | Midsomer Murders | Samantha Johnstone | Episode: "Judgement Day" |
| 2002 | Heartbeat | Mrs Morris | Episode: "Closing the Book" |
| 2003–2010 | Last of the Summer Wine | Miss Lucinda Davenport | 62 episodes |
| 2006 | Holby City | Mabel Phillips | Episode: "Looking After Number One" |
| 2009 | Doctors | Audrey Winston | Episode: "Now You See It..." |
| 2012 | Lewis | Hazel O'Brien | Episode: "The Indelible Stain" |
| Doctors | Marjorie Page | Episode: "The Bespectacled Bounder" | |
| 2015 | Doctors | Eileen Wilkie | Episode: "A Quiet Life" |
| Year | Title | Role | Company | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971, 1973 | The Secret Life of Kenneth Williams | Maisie | BBC Radio | |
| Early 1970s | Mostly Monkhouse | Various | BBC Radio | |
| July 1981 | It Sticks Out Half a Mile | Miss Baines | BBC Radio | |
| 1994 | Uncle Dynamite | Lady Bostock | BBC Radio | |
| 2009 | Leaves in Autumn | Iris | Wireless Theatre Company |