Ursula Howells
Birthday: Born in 1922-09-17 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK
Deathday: 2005-10-16
Howells was born in London, the daughter of composer Herbert Howells, and was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, where her father worked as Director of Music. She made her first stage appearance at Dundee in 1939, in John Drinkwater's Bird in Hand, then moved to Oxford in 1942 and three years later made her London debut at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage. In 1947 she appeared in the comedy Jane at the Aldwych Theatre. After several years in the West End, and a brief stint on Broadway where she appeared in Springtime for Henry in 1951, she began to appear in films. After the death of her father in 1983, Ursula Howells instigated the "Herbert Howells Society" and became a standard bearer for the promotion of his work. She financially supported the recording of his compositions and did much to encourage the publishing and promotion of church music.
TV Credits
Midsomer Murders
Character: Lady Isabel Aubrey
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty. ...
Bergerac
Character: Elizabeth Fouchet
Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it....
Heartbeat
Character: Miriam Wakefield
Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines....
Lovejoy
Character: Olive Nettleton
The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries....
Sherlock Holmes
Character:
The first American television series of Sherlock Holmes adventures aired in syndication in the fall of 1954. The 39 half-hour mostly original stories were produced by Sheldon Reynolds and filmed in France by Guild Films, starring Ronald Howard as Holmes and Howard Marion Crawford as Watson. Archie Duncan appeared in many episodes as Inspector Lestrade. Richard Larke, billed as Kenneth Richards, played Sgt. Wilkins in about fifteen episodes. The series' associate producer, Nicole Milinaire, was o...
Bulman
Character:
Bulman is a Granada TV series which ran from 1985–1987 and followed the fortunes of the major character from the earlier XYY Man and Strangers series. Bulman was based - increasingly loosely - on the character featured in the XYY Man novels by Kenneth Royce. In this incarnation, Don Henderson appeared again as former Detective Chief Inspector George Bulman, ostensibly retired from police work and repairing old clocks but active as a private investigator, with Lucy McGinty as his assistant. The...
Father, Dear Father
Character: Barbara
Patrick Glover is a divorced thriller novelist attempting to raise and keep the peace between his two teenage daughters....
Interpol Calling
Character: Miki
The adventures of Interpol policemen Duval and Mornay as they fought against international drug-running, homicide, robbery and forgery....
No Hiding Place
Character:
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
Fall of Eagles
Character: Empress Maria Fyodorovna
"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs)....
Man in a Suitcase
Character:
Accused of treason, a former U.S. intelligence officer based in London tries to clear his name, taking on freelance jobs around Europe as he searches for answers....
Lilli Palmer Theatre
Character: Mary
A half-hour anthology series....
Hard Times
Character: Mrs Gradgrass
Thomas Gradgrind devotes his life to a philosophy of rationalism, self-interest and hard fact. His raising of his children to this way of thinking creates opportunity and tragedy....
The Cazalets
Character:
The Cazalets is a 2001 television drama series about the life of a large privileged family in the years 1937 to 1947. Most of the action takes place in London, and at the family's large estate in Sussex. The drama was based on the novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard, and adapted by the screenwriter Douglas Livingstone. The series was originally produced by Cinema Verity for BBC One and is available on DVD....
The Human Jungle
Character: Julia Gray
The Human Jungle is a British TV series about a psychiatrist, made for ABC Television by the small production company Independent Artists for transmission on ITV. Starring Herbert Lom, it ran for two series which were first transmitted during 1963 and 1965....
Play for Today
Character: Sarah Chandler
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Upstairs, Downstairs
Character: Duchess of Buckminster
Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War....
Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced
Character: Miss Blacklock
An advertisement announcing the time and place of a forthcoming murder appears among the ads of the paper in the small village of Chipping Cleghorn....
Cousin Bette
Character: Adeline
Adaptation of the Balzac novel. A poor and homely spinster, who feels she's been walked on all her life, teams up with a scheming courtesan to wreak elaborate revenge on her rich and handsome relatives....
Jewels
Character: The Duchess
Sarah Thompson, an American visiting England, meets and marries William Whitfield, the Duke of Whitfield. They settle in a chateau in France and begin a family. World War II interrupts their happiness and alters their future. After the war, the family helps war survivors by buying their jewelry and eventually opens a jewelry store, which rapidly becomes a success. But conflicts abound as new generations arise and forces from both outside and within threaten the store and the family....
Bergerac
Character: Laura Atherton
Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it....
Miss Marple
Character: Miss Blacklock
Miss Marple, the spinster detective who is one of the most famous characters created by English crime writer Agatha Christie, is portrayed by Joan Hickson who starred in a dozen television mysteries about Miss Marple over the course of a decade....
Father, Dear Father
Character: Barbara Mossman
The hugely successful British television series Father Dear Father is transplanted to Australia when novelist Patrick Glover and his assistant Nanny trek down under to write the great Australian crime novel, and end up supervising Patricks boisterous young nieces while their own father is abroad....
Armchair Theatre
Character: Margaret
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968....
A Choice of Coward
Character: Liz Essendine
Series of four Noël Coward plays from ITV's 1964 "Play of the Week" slot....
Sunday Night Theatre
Character: Mary Winsloe
Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty...
Movie Credits
Assignment K
Character: Estelle
Philip Scott, the boss of a toy company, is secretly also the chief of a British spy organization. Scott's cover is destroyed when enemy agents kidnap his girlfriend to force him to reveal the identities of his fellow spies....
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
Character: Mrs. Deirdre Biddulph (segment 1 "Werewolf")
Five strangers board a train and are joined by a mysterious fortune teller who offers to read their Tarot cards. Five separate stories unfold: An architect returns to his ancestoral home to find a werewolf out for revenge; a doctor discovers his new wife is a vampire; a huge plant takes over a house; a musician gets involved with voodoo; an art critic is pursued by a disembodied hand....
Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly
Character: Mumsy
A wealthy, fatherless British clan kidnaps bums and hippies and forces them to participate in an elaborate role-playing game in which they are the perfect family; those who refuse or attempt escape are ritualistically murdered....
Time After Time
Character: May Swift
'Oh I was naughty. And I'm still naughty so take care.' And so Leda was, all those years ago when she was the childhood friend of Jasper and his three sisters April, May and June. Now she returns to add a little spice to life in their crumbling Irish country house....
Now Let Him Go
Character: Nurse Judith
A world-class painter is taken ill and lies in the bedroom of an inn, while people down below squabble over his paintings and inheritance. The wily old man is unperturbed, even regarding the infernal trumpet sound which plays throughout....
Account Rendered
Character: Lucille Ainsworth
Police find that everyone had a motive for the murder of a wealthy woman....
Crossplot
Character: Maggi Thwaites
A successful London ad-exec hires a beautiful Hungarian girl to pose for some modeling shots, little realising that she has overheard an assassination plot and is now being hunted by some dangerous killers....
Father Dear Father
Character: Barbara
After divorcing his wife, Patrick Glover decides it is time to remarry, and chooses his literary agent, only to then mistakenly propose to the cleaning lady. Part of his reason for wanting to remarry is to regain some control over his wayward daughters, but they and their lovers continue to complicate his home and his life... A farcical comedy full of hilarious confusions, this feature-length version of the popular sitcom Father, Dear Father is a real gem of British humour at its best....
Track the Man Down
Character: Mary Dennis
A newspaper reporter finds himself drawn into the aftermath of a racetrack robbery....
The Gilded Cage
Character: Brenda Lucas
Steve and Harry become involved in an art theft. Harry is framed by the crooks, and arrested by the police. Steve has to prove his brother's innocence....
The Cocktail Party
Character:
Troubled married couple who, through the intervention of a mysterious stranger, settle their problems and move on with their lives....
80,000 Suspects
Character: Joanna Duten
A doctor's already-shaky marriage is tested to an even greater extent when he has to contend with a smallpox epidemic....
The Long Arm
Character: Mrs. Elliot / Mrs. Gilson
Scotland Yard detectives attempt to solve a spate of safe robberies across England beginning with clues found at the latest burglary in London. The film is notable for using a police procedural style made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. It is known in the US as The Third Key....
West of Suez
Character: Eileen
In this suspense movie, a Yankee mercenary is hired to blow up an Arab dignitary....
Torture Garden
Character: Miss Maxine Chambers (segment 3 "Mr. Steinway")
Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by the sinister Dr. Diabolo. Having shown them a handful of haunted-house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra....
Gentle Folk
Character: Mrs Menant
An Edwardian house party given by a Fabian woman, her business-man husband and assorted guests from politics and the Arts - including a young man prone to disturbing premonitions....
Two Letter Alibi
Character: Louise
Charles Hilary is in love with Kathy Forrester, a beautiful television personality, but is married to Louise, an alcoholic with as many lovers as whisky bottles. His pleas for a divorce are met with threats and abuse. "You'll have to murder me first", Louise tells him and three hours later she is found dead, shot with her husband's pistol. When Charles is arrested, Kathy desperately sets to work to prove his innocence....
The Sicilians
Character: Mme. Perrault
An aide at the American Embassy in London finds himself involved with both Scotland Yard and the French police over the kidnapping of the son of a Mafia boss who has spilled the beans back in the States....
A Rather English Marriage
Character: Mary
A squadron leader and a retired milkman decide to bury their differences and move in together after they are both widowed on the very same night. They become a companionable if odd couple, until their unlikely friendship is threatened by the arrival of an alluring woman with a hidden agenda....
They Can't Hang Me
Character: Antonia Pitt
A murderer hopes to escape his death sentence by identifying the leaders of a spy ring....
Flesh and Blood
Character: Harriet Marshall
Based upon the play A Sleeping Clergyman by James Bridie, it tells the story of three generations of the Scottish Cameron family, with its various conflicts and romances....
The Tichborne Claimant
Character: Lady Doughty
Based on a true story, set in the late 19th century: Lord Tichborne, the ninth richest nobleman in England, disappears after a South American shipwreck. Some years later his erudite Afro-English valet, Bogle, is sent to investigate rumors that Tichborne survived and settled in Australia. An alcoholic ruffian answer's Bogle's inquiries claiming to be the lost heir. Bogle suspects fraud, but conspires with the claimant to split the inheritance should the latter succesfully pass himself off to frie...
A Pinch of Snuff
Character: Alice Andover
Receiving a tip from his dentist Jack Shorter, policeman Peter Pascoe takes a closer look at the Calliope Kinema Club, a film club notorious for showing adult entertainment movies. Shorter is convinced that one particular scene in a movie he recently saw was too realistic to have been staged with fake blood, but when Pascoe and his bluff superior Andy Dalziel starts investigating, they soon comes across the actress in question, Linda Abbott, who obviously didn't suffer from any harm and assures ...
The Oracle
Character: Peggy
An Irish "oracle" foretells the next day's track results to a newspaperman, resulting in a national uproar....
The Constant Husband
Character: Ann
Charles Hathaway wakes up in West Wales with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. With the help of a Cardiff specialist he traces his life back to his gorgeous wife and their large London house, so all seems well with the world. But more detective work starts to uncover an alarming chain of further stunning wives and a way of going on that the new Charles finds pretty unacceptable....
The Weak and the Wicked
Character: Pam Vickers
Jean Raymond an upper class woman with a gambling addiction, is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison; gradually, however, her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there. This sympathetic drama traces the contrasting lives and often faltering progress of the inmates of a women's prison....
Keep It Clean
Character: Pat Anstey
A man invents a new cleaning machine. His brother in law offers to help him promote it and they get help from the Purity League....
The Madhouse on Castle Street
Character: Martha Tompkins
A man mysteriously locks himself in a room in a boarding house leaving only a note saying he has decided to "retire from the world". His worried sister and the other boarders then try to discover why. This TV play is missing believed wiped from the BBC archives....
The Cold Room
Character: Headmistress
A girl visiting modern day East Germany with her estranged father begins reliving the horrifying events that happened to a young girl living there during World War II....
I Believe in You
Character: Hon. Ursula
A drama about parole officers to follow the successful Ealing police story of "The Blue Lamp"(1950) . Various sub-plots follow the parole officers and their charges....
The Enigma
Character: Mrs Fielding
When John Fielding, MP, disappeared on the way home to his country estates he was, perhaps, cracking the first good joke of his life. Sergeant Jennings, left to pursue the investigation, finds little humour or help amongst Fielding's friends or family. Only Isobel could believe that Fielding might have wanted to disappear....
When the Actors Come
Character: Barbara Karolina
On a cold day in January 1850, a group of travelling actors arrive out of the snow at the remote country estate of Count Horvath, in eastern Hungary. The Count is delighted to have an excuse for re-opening the old family theatre, closed since his childhood. But other members of his household wonder whether these unexpected guests should be made quite so welcome....
The Blakes Slept Here
Character: Emily
The story of a family house through four generations...
A Choice of Coward: Present Laughter
Character: Liz Essendine
An aging and self-obsessed actor finds himself in a situation bordering on farce when he is besieged by the demands of his estranged wife, women who want to seduce him, and a crazed playwright....