Gretchen Franklin
Birthday: Born in 1911-07-07 in Covent Garden, London, England, UK
Deathday: 2005-07-11
Born in Covent Garden, West London in 1911, Gretchen Franklin was an English actress and dancer whose showbusiness career spanned over 70 years. She was best known for her role as Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap opera EastEnders. She appeared in the very first episode in 1985 and was a regular in the series until 1988. After this she returned to the show intermittently until 2000 when her character was killed off, allowing Franklin to retire from acting at the age of 89. Born into a theatrical family (her father had a song and dance act, her grandfather was a famous music hall entertainer at the turn of the century and her cousin was Dad's Army star Clive Dunn) Gretchen Franklin made her theatre debut as a teenage chorus girl. She toured with comedians such as Gracie Fields before making the switch to serious acting. Her film appearances included Cloak Without Dagger (1956), Flame in the Streets (1961), The Murder Game (1965), Help! (1965), How I Won The War (1967), Twisted Nerve (1968), The Night Visitor (1971), The Three Musketeers (1973), Quincy's Quest (1979), and Ragtime (1981), among others. She is namechecked in The Fall's 1990 song Telephone Thing.
TV Credits
Keeping Up Appearances
Character: Daddy's Fiance
Hyacinth Bucket (whose name, she insists, is pronounced "Bouquet") is a suburban housewife in the West Midlands. She would be the first to tell you that she is a gracious hostess, a respected citizen, and a well-connected member of high society. If you don't believe that, just ask her best friend Elizabeth, held captive in Hyacinth's kitchen; or the postmen and neighbours who bristle at the sound of her voice; or Richard, her weary and compliant husband. In fact, Hyacinth's reputation could be ...
Budgie
Character: Carrie Wetherall
Budgie is a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972. The series was created by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall . The show was produced by Verity Lambert, Rex Firkin was the Executive producer....
EastEnders
Character:
The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough....
Z-Cars
Character:
Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978....
Gideon's Way
Character: Martha Bray
Gideon's Way is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey. The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series. It starred Liverpudlian John Gregson in the title role as Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, with Alexander Davion as his assistant, Detective Chief Inspector David Keen, Reginald Jessup as Det. Superintendent LeMaitre, Ian Rossiter as Detective Chief Superintendent Joe Bell and Basil Dignam...
The Scales of Justice
Character: Rose Jenkins
Not strictly TV productions, "The Scales of Justice" were cinema second features produced for Anglo Amalgamated running around 30 minutes and followed the "Scotland Yard" series of shorts also introduced by Edgar Lustgarten. Production was sporadic (presumably filling gaps in the Edgar Wallace schedule), the first three released Nov-Dec 1962, a second batch of three released Sept/Oct 1963, two more in Feb 1965, one in Dec 1965 and a final batch (in colour) Sept 1966 to March 1967. The usual Mert...
The Sweeney
Character: Florence, the Charlady
Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter....
The Protectors
Character: Nelly Baxter
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in contemporary times. It was also the only Gerry Anderson produced television series that was not of the fantasy or science fiction genres. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. Despite not featuring marionettes or any real science fiction element...
Dixon of Dock Green
Character: Mrs. Walcott
Dixon of Dock Green was a BBC television series following the activities of police officers at a fictional Metropolitan Police station in the East End of London from 1955 to 1976. Some episodes were later remade as a BBC radio series in 2005 and 2006....
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
Character:
Meet Frank Spencer, an eager young man trying to find his way in the world. He's enthusiastic, well-meaning... and disaster-prone....
Hazell
Character:
Hazell is a British television series that ran from 1978–1979, about a fictional private detective named James Hazell....
I Didn't Know You Cared
Character: Auntie Lil
I Didn't Know You Cared is a British comedy series set in a working class household in South Yorkshire in the 1970s, written by Peter Tinniswood loosely based upon his books A Touch Of Daniel, I Didn't Know You Cared and Except You're A Bird. It was broadcast by the BBC in four series from 1975 to 1979. The main characters are Carter Brandon; his Uncle Mort; his mother, Annie; his father, Les; his girlfriend, Pat Partington; and Uncle Staveley. Auntie Lil appears in the first two series. Other ...
A Slight Case Of...
Character:
Roy Kinnear plays a seedy and incompetent private detective named H A Wormsley....
George and Mildred
Character: Mother
A middle-aged housewife feels frustrated with her mean and miserable husband, the married couple adapting to life in an up-market housing estate....
Castle Haven
Character:
Castle Haven was a British soap opera, set around the residents of two Victorian seaside houses that had been converted into a series of flats and bedsits. It was first broadcast on 4 April 1969, but cancelled just under a year later on 26 March 1970 100 episodes were produced, but it is believed that only fifteen minutes of the series is still in existence; the rest were wiped after transmission, as per the (then commonplace) procedure of wiping videotape....
EastEnders
Character: Ethel Skinner
The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough....
Blackadder
Character: Cordelia
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....
Rising Damp
Character: Aunt Maud
Set in a seedy bedsit, the cowardly landlord Rigsby has his conceits debunked by his long suffering tenants....
Bowler
Character: Mrs Bowler
Released from prison after serving a prison sentence, Stanley Bowler sets about trying to 'better' himself. The basic premise of the series revolves around Bowler's attempts to develop a more cultured personality, as he tries to understand the fine arts, and to move into higher social circles....
Terry and June
Character: Cath
Terry and June Medford are both middle aged and beginning to find the trials of life are more difficult as they try to succeed in their daily lives. The couple have just moved to Purley, south-east London... Aunt Lucy and the mynah bird had disappeared, as had the occasionally visiting daughters. Terry and June now mixed with a friendly next door neighbour, Beattie; Terry's chatty work colleague, Malcolm; and their gruff boss Sir Dennis Hodge. Otherwise, things were much as before, with Terry's ...
Danger UXB
Character: Mrs. Flack
Danger UXB is a 1979 British ITV television series about World War II developed by John Hawkesworth and starring Anthony Andrews as Lieutenant Brian Ash, an officer in the Royal Engineers. The series chronicles the exploits of the fictional 97 Tunnelling Company which as a result of thousands of unexploded bombs in London during the Blitz has been made a bomb disposal unit. As with all his fellow officers, Ash must for the most part learn the techniques and procedures of disarming and destroyin...
Sykes
Character: Bookstall Assistant
Classic sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques as brother and sister twins who have to tackle the trials and tribulations of suburban life....
Quatermass
Character: Edna
In the near future, a now-elderly Bernard Quatermass investigates the disappearance of his granddaughter and a mysterious cult....
Londoners
Character: Mrs. Hincastle
London itself takes the starring role in this series of plays from the BBC – a role which varies between hero and villain, enchantress and harpy. The series features extensive location filming, ranging from Soho to the Law Courts, Wembley to the docks. Of the twelve episodes, eleven are believed to be lost....
Nicholas Nickleby
Character: Miss Knag
Nicholas Nickleby, a young boy in search of a better life, struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle....
Story Parade
Character: Mrs. Huxtable
Story Parade specialized in adaptations of modern novels. It was broadcast on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964. The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It also starred John Carson John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned up in various documentaries about Isaac Asimov's work...
Movie Credits
The One and Only Phyllis Dixey
Character: Phyllis's Dresser
Aspiring dancer Phyllis Dixey makes her name as a stripper....
The Murder Game
Character: Landlady
A woman abandons her husband, changes her name, and remarries again. Complications ensue....
Before I Wake
Character: Elsie
A woman travels to England to attend her parents' funeral. She is told by officials that they died of natural causes together, but she doesn't buy it. She comes to suspect that the nurse who took care of her parents was involved in their deaths, but since the nurse is well thought of in the town, no one believes her. What she doesn't know is that her parents' killer has selected her as the next victim...
The Trouble with Our Ivy
Character: Mrs. Chard
A feud over rose-growing escalates to manic proportions when one neighbor acquires a fast-growing creeper....
Ticket to Paradise
Character: Mrs. Higginbottom
Travel agent Emrys Jones and tourist Patricia Dainton fall in love in sunny Italy. Jones has led Dainton to believe that he's fabulously wealthy, and she has likewise deceived him. When the truth inevitably outs, it hardly matters, since hero and heroine now love each other for themselves rather than their bank accounts....
The Silent Playground
Character: Mrs. Elgin
Police hunt for mental hospital out patient Simon Lacey, who has been unwittingly handing out barbiturates to children as sweets....
The Four Musketeers
Character: D'Artagnan's Mother (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Four Musketeers defend the queen and her dressmaker from Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter....
Secrets
Character: Mrs. Pitt
Secrets Chocolates receive an unexpected sales boost when three maintenance workers fall into the chocolate vat and are fed through the production line....
Twisted Nerve
Character: Clarkie
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession....
The Three Musketeers
Character: D’Artagnan’s Mother
The young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a King's musketeer. He meets and quarrels with three men, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel. D'Artagnan finds out they are musketeers and is invited to join them in their efforts to oppose Cardinal Richelieu, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the King. D'Artagnan must also juggle affairs with the charming Constance Bonancieux and the passionate Lady De Winter, a secret agent for...
Flame in the Streets
Character: Mrs. Bingham
Flame in the Streets is a 1961 British drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker. Racial tensions manifest themselves at home, work and on the streets during Bonfire Night in the burgeoning West Indian community of early 1960s Britain. Trades union leader (Mills) fights for the rights of a black worker but struggles with the news that his own daughter is planning to marry a West Indian, much against his own logic and the prejudice of his wife....
The Night Visitor
Character: Mrs. Hansen
An insane Swedish farmer escapes from an asylum to get revenge on his sister, her husband and others....
The High Terrace
Character: Mrs. Webb
A British theater actress unable to get out of her contract is assisted by an American playwright when a pair of her scissors is discovered lodged in her producer's back....
Return to Waterloo
Character: Woman on Train
A man taking the train to work one morning is overcome by melancholy memories and morbid fantasies....
Subterfuge
Character: Bus Conductress
A young wife is becoming very distraught over the fact that her husband, a secret service "spy" for England, has changed his mind about transferring away so that he can spend more time with her and their young son. He has grown cold and distant towards her; she thinks it 's because of the secretiveness of his work. Meanwhile, an American spy comes to England and is induced to help the British "team" with an undercover spy ring. When this spy ring is over turned the "bugs" that crawl out from und...
How I Won the War
Character: 2nd Old Lady
An inept British WWII commander leads his troops to a series of misadventures in North Africa and Europe....
Help!
Character: Neighbour
An obscure Eastern cult that practices human sacrifice pursues Ringo after he unknowingly puts on a ceremonial ring (that, of course, won't come off). On top of that, a pair of mad scientists, members of Scotland Yard, and a beautiful but dead-eyed assassin all have their own plans for the Fab Four....
Trottie True
Character: Martha (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....
The Secret Place
Character: Mother (uncredited)
A beautiful redhead becomes involved with a group of small-time hoodlums who plan and perform a daring diamond robbery....
Cloak Without Dagger
Character: Emmie
A woman reporter discovers a former lover and intelligence officer during WWII apparently working as a waiter in a hotel; and, believing something she impulsively did while he was on a mission is responsible for his current situation, sets out to make things better by finding a foreign agent known only as Kupchek, with the help of the hotel's detective....
Ragtime
Character: Elderly Woman
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City....