Wendy Richard

Wendy Richard made her career as a TV actress playing mouthy women. Just two of them.

After her 20 years on the BBC soap EastEnders, she may be recalled as the rather haggard Pauline Fowler. I'd prefer to remember her as the brash and sexy Shirley Brahms in Are You Being Served:



Miss Richard died this week.

There was a lot to like about the actress. Not only did people find her delightful in person, she knew where to draw the line between entertainment and propaganda:

When she left EastEnders she said she was doing so because she objected to some parts of the storyline and script. At one stage, Richard was reportedly given a script which included a vicious tirade against Margaret Thatcher. She refused to perform this sequence, accusing the scriptwriters of using the series as a soapbox for their political opinions.

-- Nick