Elspet Gray
Birthday: Born in 1929-02-18 in Inverness, Inverness Shire, Scotland, UK
Deathday: 2013-02-18
Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix (née Gray; 12 April 1929 – 18 February 2013) was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. She played Lady Collingford in the television series Catweazle and Mrs. Palmer in the television series Solo, alongside Felicity Kendal. Gray had a long stage career, particularly known for her appearances in the Whitehall farces, the company being managed by her husband Brian Rix, which were originally performed at the Whitehall Theatre and later at the Garrick. Gray married Brian Rix in 1949. The couple had four children - two sons and two daughters. Their eldest child, daughter Shelley (born 1951) had Down syndrome. The experience of caring for her led the couple to become active campaigners for the disabled. Rix later became Mencap chairman and president. He became a life peer in 1992. This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by contributors. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
TV Credits
Doctor Who
Character: Chancellor Thalia
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs....
Fawlty Towers
Character: Mrs. Abbott
Owner Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil, a chambermaid Polly, and Spanish waiter Manuel attempt to run their hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding guests....
Inspector Morse
Character: Mrs Bartlett
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses....
Solo
Character:
Gemma Palmer is 30 years old, and fed up with being betrayed and taken for granted. She's just found out her boyfriend, Danny, has been having sex with her friend, Gloria, and this is the last straw. She throws Danny out, tells Gloria to go jump in a lake, tells off all the people who have been treating her like a doormat, and quits her boring job at an estate agent's. From now on, she's going solo. At least, that is her firm intention....
Blackadder
Character: The Queen
Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of the First World War....
Catweazle
Character: Lady Collingford
A medieval wizard (though not a very good one) Catweazle is transported to the modern age... A British television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence for London Weekend Television under the LWI banner, and screened in the UK on ITV in 1970. A second season in 1971 was directed by David Reid and David Lane. Both series had thirteen episodes each, with Geoffrey Bayldon playing the leading role. The series was broadcast in Ireland, ...
Colonel March of Scotland Yard
Character: Johanna
Colonel March of The Department of Queer Complaints investigates unusual cases, locked-room murders, and mysteries concerning the supernatural....
The Agatha Christie Hour
Character:
This ten episode program was based on ten short stories written by Agatha Christie but with wide-ranging themes. Some were romances, some had supernatural themes and a couple were adventures. The common link was that all came from the talented pen of Agatha Christie, all were entertaining and each drama was carefully crafted and well cast with many of Britain's best known actors of the time represented....
Tenko
Character: Phyllis Bristow
Based on real-life experiences, Tenko remains one of the most fondly remembered and acclaimed BBC dramas of the early 1980s. It follows a group of women, formerly comfortably well-off ex-pats living in Singapore, as they are captured by the Japanese during World War II....
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
Character: Mrs. Crossland
The Ruth Rendell mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000....
dinnerladies
Character: Hilary
Dinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, m...
Doctor Finlay
Character: Mrs. Finlay
Following his service in World War II, Doctor Finlay returns to the practice at Arden House. This is at a time when the National Health Service is about to be instituted....
Casualty
Character: Mary Porter
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives....
The Wingless Bird
Character: Grace Farrier
On the eve of World War I, Agnes Conway manages both the business and the problems of her troubled family. She finds the strength to break class barriers and help her sister Jessie marry a good boy from a family of dockside toughs. Is she strong enough to break them again when Charles Farrier, a gentleman, courts her over his parents' opposition? Agnes faces an added dilemma when she finds her heart divided between Charles and his soldier brother Reginald....
Movie Credits
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Character: Laura's Mother - Wedding One
Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love....
The Girl in a Swing
Character: Mrs. Dresland
A London art broker goes to Copenhagen where he requires the services of a secretary fluent in Danish, English, and German. He falls deeply in love with the woman, despite the fact that he knows virtually nothing about her. She insists on not being married in a church, and after they are married, some bad things from her past begin surfacing in subtly supernatural ways, and he must find the best way to deal with them without destroying their relationship....
Blackadder: The Lost Pilot
Character: The Queen
Sir Tony Robinson takes a journey back in time to find out where Blackadder really began, and to uncover the story of the previously-unseen pilot episode....
The Night We Got the Bird
Character: Woman with Dog
Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn....
Devil's Point
Character: June Mallard
A Thames River barge operator finds a mysterious package dropped by smugglers....
An Audience With Victoria Wood
Character: Self
British comedy legend Victoria Wood entertains a star-studded audience including Julie Walters, Judi Dench and Dawn French in this 1988 special. Watch her crack jokes, play the piano and answer light-hearted questions....
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Character: Self / Mrs Abbott
30 years after Fawlty Towers (1975) ended, Stephen Fry narrates a documentary about the making of this classic sitcom....
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Character: Lady Sutterwick (uncredited)
Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help of an outgoing showgirl. O'Toole, who received his fourth Oscar-nomination for this performance, is joined by '60s pop star Petula Clark and fellow Oscar-nominee Michael Redgrave....
Johnny-on-the-Spot
Character: Joan Ingram
An ex-convict, who was framed, struggles to clear his name....
Love in Waiting
Character: Brenda Lawrence
The story of three women working as waitresses in post-World War II Britain....
Fly Away Peter
Character: Phyllis Hapgood
Director Charles Saunders' low-key domestic comedy, adapted from A.P. Dearsley's play, centers on a middle-aged London couple who react in different ways as their four children grow up, fall in love and make career choices....
The Blind Goddess
Character: Daphne Dearing
Justice, the poets have it, is a blind goddess. Eric Portman stars as the lawyer defending a lord, Hugh Williams, accused by his secretary Michael Dennison of having diverted public funds for his own use....
Trottie True
Character: Honor Bellaire (uncredited)
Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status. She finally settles for Lord Landon Digby who has lots of assets and a very-stiff upper lip. She gets a lot of the latter and very little of the former, and decides Sid might have been a better choice....
Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity
Character: Chancellor Thalia
Omega, an ancient Time Lord made of pure anti-matter, once defeated by the Doctor, is plotting to cross over into this dimension by bonding with the Doctor. Meanwhile, the disappearance of a man in Amsterdam piques the curiosity of his cousin, Tegan, who previously left the Doctor at Heathrow Airport and now finds herself at Omega's mercy. Fearing total destruction from the collision of matter and antimatter, the Time Lords recall the Doctor to Gallifrey to undertake the only viable solution: ex...
Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
Character: Self
A countdown of the top 40 "Blackadder" moments chosen by cast and crew members, celebrity fans and 15 genuine Blackadders....