Thora Hird
Birthday: Born in 1911-05-28 in Morecambe, Lancashire, England, UK
Deathday: 2003-03-15
Dame Thora Hird, DBE was an English actress and comedian of stage and screen, presenter and writer. In a career spanning over 70 years, she appeared in more than 100 film and television roles, becoming a household name and a British institution.
TV Credits
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....
In Loving Memory
Character: Ivy Unsworth
In Loving Memory is a British period sitcom set in an undertakers business that starred Thora Hird and Christopher Beeny. A pilot was transmitted in 1969 by Thames Television who rejected the idea before it was finally accepted by Yorkshire Television in 1979 where it further ran for five series between until 1986....
Heartbeat
Character: Hannah Stockdale
Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines....
Last of the Summer Wine
Character: Edie
Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world....
Blankety Blank
Character:
Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1979 Australian game show Blankety Blanks. The British version ran from 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 on BBC One, hosted first by Terry Wogan and later by Les Dawson. Regular members of the celebrity panel on this version included Kenny Everett, Lorraine Chase, Gareth Hunt, Gary Davies, and Cheryl Baker. A revival fronted by Lily Savage was produced by the BBC from 26 December 1997 to 28 December 1999, followed by ITV from 7 Jan...
dinnerladies
Character: Enid
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...
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Character: Ada
The legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers....
Play for Today
Character: Olive Major
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....
BBC Play of the Month
Character: Clare Soppitt
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
Talking Heads
Character: Doris
A series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed British playwright Alan Bennett....
Talking Heads
Character: Violet
A series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed British playwright Alan Bennett....
Goggle Eyes
Character: Mrs Harrington
An adaptation of Anne Fine's 1989 children's novel about a one-parent family....
All Creatures Great and Small
Character: Mrs. Clarke
All Creatures Great and Small is a British television series, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot. Ninety episodes were aired over two three-year runs. The first run was based directly on Herriot's books; the second was filmed with original scripts....
BBC Play of the Month
Character: Nurse
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything
Character:
Comedic British History...
Objects of Affection
Character: Elizabeth Mary Rhodes
A series of plays written by Alan Bennett....
Play for Today
Character: Doris
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....
Play for Today
Character: Aunt KItty
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....
Dixon of Dock Green
Character: Alice Leggett
Created by Ted Willis. 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....
Last of the Summer Wine
Character: Herself (archive footage)
Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world....
Tell Me Another
Character: Herself
Personal anecdotes as told to Dick Hills....
Parkinson
Character: Self
Michael Parkinson returns for a second run of his iconic talk show....
Movie Credits
Went the Day Well?
Character: Ivy
The quiet village of Bramley End is taken over by German troops posing as Royal Engineers. Their task is to disrupt England's radar network in preparation for a full scale German invasion. Once the villagers discover the true identity of the troops, they do whatever they can to thwart the Nazis plans....
The Quatermass Xperiment
Character: Rosie Wrigley
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is first lost from radar, then roars back to Earth and crashes in a farmer's field, and is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis....
Corridor of Mirrors
Character: Visitor in Tussauds
A man falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begins to suspect that he may have also loved her in a previous life....
A Kind of Loving
Character: Mrs. Rothwell
As Vic Brown vacillates between infatuation and disinterest for his co-worker Ingrid Rothwell, she finds out that she is pregnant and Vic has to reconcile how he thought his life would go with what life actually has in store for him....
Madness of the Heart
Character: Rosa
A blind Englishwoman weds a French nobleman and moves into his family's chateau, but she quickly realizes someone there wants her out of the way....
The Nightcomers
Character: Mrs. Grose
Prequel to the Henry James classic "Turn of the Screw" about the events leading up to the deaths of Peter Quint and Ms. Jessel, and the slow corruption of the children in their care....
For Better, for Worse
Character: Mrs. Doyle
In postwar London a young graduate and his girlfriend decide to marry. Her well-to-do parents are not convinced, but they agree once he has got a £5.10.0 job and a 30/- a week single-room flat. The newly-weds find money fearfully tight, the flat cramped, the neighbours a trial, and her parents always hovering. Can faith conquer all? Is there some way of getting rid of tea-leaves except down the sink?...
One Good Turn
Character: Cook
Norman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer (boo hiss) who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to ...
The Big Frame
Character: Hotel Maid
An ex-GI wakes up with blood on his clothes in a strange hotel room. He can't remember the night before but he later finds out that a man he got into a fight with earlier in the night was murdered....
The Magnet
Character: Nanny's friend
A classic Ealing comedy in which a young boy steals a magnet and becomes a hero....
The Entertainer
Character: Mrs. Ada Lapford
Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business....
The Long Memory
Character: Mrs Pewsey
An innocent man is released from prison after 12 years and tracks down the witnesses who lied about him in court....
Conspirator
Character: Broaders
A newlywed suspects her husband of being a Communist spy....
Term of Trial
Character: Mrs. Taylor
A schoolteacher plagued by alcoholism and his refusal to serve in World War II, Graham Weir inspires contempt in almost everyone around him, including his bitter wife, Anna. When the lovely young Shirley Taylor, one of Weir's students, falls for her unfortunate instructor, he is tempted and flattered but turns down her advances. Taylor's subsequent actions make Weir's life even more complicated....
Time, Gentlemen, Please!
Character: Alice Crouch
Because of its high productivity and "almost" 100 per cent employment, the town of Hayhoe, England is expecting a visit from the Prime Minister. The "almost" is because of Dan Dance (Eddie Byrne), an old rogue who would rather drink and philosophize than work. The Village Council are determined to have a perfect record so they connive to have the old man put into the alms-house which has been unoccupied for many years, where he must abide by rules laid down 400 years ago. A new Vicar arrives and...
Once a Jolly Swagman
Character: Ma Fox
A factory worke quits his job to become a motorcycle racer....
Personal Affair
Character: Mrs. Usher
A schoolgirl disappears for three days after a frank talk with the wife of a Latin teacher she loves....
Turn the Key Softly
Character: Mrs. Rowan, landlady
A bitter burglar, a prostitute and an elderly shoplifter spend their first day out of jail....
Lost
Character: Kelly's landlady
U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face....
Blonde Bait
Character: 'Granny' Ramsey
Seeking the whereabouts of international gangster Nick Randall, the US State Department contacts Scotland Yard, as his girlfriend, Angela Booth, is currently in a British prison. Angela has refused to give Nick up to the law, so the combined authorities arrange for Angela to escape, aided by stoolie Gran' Ramsey who is at the same prison. The police will then follow Angela to Nick. Gran' stages the getaway, and the two women, accompanied by a third convict, Marguerite, whose prison-born baby ...
Some Will, Some Won't
Character: Agnes Russell
Four people go to great lengths to obtain the fortune left in a will by a very wealthy practical joker....
The Black Sheep of Whitehall
Character: Joyce
A professor teaching at a correspondence school discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and South America....
Boys in Brown
Character: Mrs. Knowles
Jackie lives in poverty with his widowed mother. In a bid to escape poverty he gets involved in a robbery that sees him sentenced to three years in Borstal where he meets a tough crowd, tougher than anything on the outside....
Now and Forever
Character: Maggie the Maid (uncredited)
A rich young society girl falls in love with a car mechanic. Her family is appalled and stops her seeing him. The girl attempts to commit suicide and then decides to elope....
Further Up the Creek
Character: Mrs. Galloway
The sequel to 'Up The Creek' sees David Tomlinson return as bumbling navy boffin Lieutenant Humphrey Fairweather. This time he is skipper of the ship Aristotle and, together with his second-in-command, Fairweather wreaks havoc when he is ordered to deliver the Aristotle to its new owners in a mythical Middle-Eastern country....
Consuming Passions
Character: Mrs. Gordon
Adapted from a play written by two Monty Python vets, this toothy satire launches with a tragic accident at Chumley's chocolate factory when hapless manager Ian Littleton (Tyler Butterworth) accidentally knocks several employees into a huge chocolate vat. The tragic mishap at the chocolate factory results in candy lovers getting an unexpected 'extra' in their sweets....
Emergency Call
Character: Mrs. Cornelius
A 5-year-old child is diagnosed with leukaemia and has only days to live. Her only hope is a blood transfusion, but her blood type is extremely rare, so the race is on to find the donors....
The Love Match
Character: Sal Brown
After being arrested for assaulting a football referee, desperate train driver Bill (Arthur Askey) raids the railwaymen's holiday fund to cover his £55 fine. He knows he's going to be discovered though, leaving him no choice but to get the money back by hook or by crook! His last chance is to run a book on the United v City football derby. If that wasn't tense enough, Bill's son is also making his debut for United. It looks like it's going to be a day to remember - do you dare look? ...The Love ...
Pat and Margaret
Character: Jim's Mother
Unexpected events occur when Pat, a glamorous British-born star of American soaps, returns home to plug her auto-biography on television and meets, for the first time since they were teenagers, Margaret her plain and frumpy younger sister. The meeting is painful for both women highlighting the vast differences in their lives and resurrecting painful memories of their unhappy childhood with an uncaring, errant mother. The tabloid press smell a juicy story and a race ensues to trace the whereabout...
A Day to Remember
Character: Mrs. Trott
A group of men from a London pub are going on a darts team outing to Boulogne. Various members of the party have different reasons for going and get involved in various adventures....
Lost for Words
Character: Annie Longden
Deric Longden and his wife, Aileen, come to terms with the fact that his mother, Annie, is getting too old to live on her own. Annie suffers her first stroke and a nursing home is the obvious solution, but which one and where?...
Women Without Men
Character: Gran' Rafferty
In love with a man who wants to marry her after he returns from a trip to sea, chorus girl Angela Booth tries to quit her seamy job and become a model citizen. When her employer refuses to dissolve her contract, though, they quarrel and she accidentally hits him. He presses charges, claiming she hit him deliberately, and she is convicted and sent to prison. As her fiance is at sea and out of contact, she is terrified he will think she has jilted him when she does not keep a New Year's date. ...
Once a Sinner
Character: Mrs. James
Impoverished British bank clerk John Ross is hopelessly in love with drop-dead gorgeous Irene James. Ross will do anything to win Irene's affections - including embezzlement. She ends up marrying him, but she can't give up her true love, slimy counterfeiter Jimmy Smart......
Portrait from Life
Character: Mrs. Skinner
A British army officer becomes fascinated by the portrait of a young woman. He travels to Germany to find her, only to discover that she is suffering from amnesia....
Rattle of a Simple Man
Character: Mrs. Winthram
Percy Winthram is a naive young man who still lives at home with his mum. In London for the Cup Final with his friends, he finds himself in a Soho strip club, where he meets blonde hostess Cyrenne. Accepting a bet from friend Ginger, he accompanies Cyrenne back to her flat, and a boast-worthy night of lust seems to be on the cards. However, drained of beer and bravado, Percy's innocence and vulnerability become all too evident....
These Dangerous Years
Character: Mrs. Ada Larkin
A Liverpool gang member wins a singing contest is then called up for National Service where he clashes with another soldier....
Go to Blazes
Character: Elsie
Ministry of Information-sponsored comedy short showing wartime audiences how to deal with the threat of incendiary bombs....
A Boy, a Girl and a Bike
Character: Mrs. Bates
The lives of the members of a West Yorkshire cycling club are complicated by romantic entanglements and a series of bike thefts....
The Great Game
Character: Miss Rawlings
The wealthy chairman of First Division Football Club, Burnville United, makes an unethical approach to a star player of another club, and the ensuing scandal costs him his job....
The Tailor of Gloucester
Character: Mrs. Speck
An ill tailor is trying to finish a coat for a wealthy man. He is hindered by his cat and helped by some grateful mice....
Intensive Care
Character: Aunty Kitty
When Denis Midgley's father is rushed to hospital, Midgley drops everything to be by his side. They've never really got on, so Midgley wants to be sure he's there if his father ever regains consciousness. As he hates his job as a schoolteacher, and his home-life with his wife, her senile mother and their insolent teenage son, he has no qualms about lingering around the hospital. But as days turn into weeks, his father obstinately refuses to 'slip away', and Denis' motivation for staying by his f...
My Brother Jonathan
Character: Ada
Jonathan Dakers' early ambition was to become a great surgeon and to marry Edie Martyn. But, on the death of his father, he is obliged to start work as a partner in a poor general practice in the Black Country. Edie falls in love with Jonathan's brother, Harold, who is killed in the Great War, and Jonathan marries her as planned. It is only afterwards that he realises he now loves another....
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Character: Mrs. Hopkins
A repressed night-school teacher, secretly homosexual, struggles to cope with his demanding, eccentric mother....
Afternoon Off
Character: Mrs Beevers
Lee, a Chinese man, works as a waiter in a hotel in England, despite speaking very little English. Told that a girl called Iris might be interested in him, on his afternoon off work he buys a box of chocolates and sets off to find her....
Fools Rush In
Character: Mrs. Coot
Howes plays Pamela Dickson, an impulsive young bride-to-be, while Guy Rolfe portrays her long-lost father Paul. Ostensibly a cad and bounder, Paul turns out to be just the opposite when he arrives for Pamela's wedding....
Talking Heads
Character:
Six monologues tell the stories of six different repressed souls: a man dominated by his mother, a vicar's wife, an inveterate letter writer, a hopeful actress, a recently widowed woman, and an elderly shut-in....
Talking Heads 2
Character:
A series of monologues....
Simon and Laura
Character: Jessie
A couple of bickering, married performers agree to star in a "Mr. and Mrs." TV show....
Background
Character: Mrs. Humphries
Two years of deterioration sees John and Barbara Lomax's marriage reduced to bitter sniping and "keeping up appearances" for the sake of the children. When John's old friend Bill professes his love for Barbara, the marriage finally breaks up – causing their three children to react in different ways and their son secretly determined to do Bill harm....
The Blind Goddess
Character: Derek's Charwoman
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....
The Next of Kin
Character: ATS drover with puncture
Lots of slogans such as "Be like Dad, Keep Mum" and "Keep it under your Hat" are visible on the walls in various scenes to reinforce the plot of this British wartime movie illustrating how gossipy talk can result in unknowingly giving valuable information to Nazi spies....
Bitter Harvest
Character: Mrs. Jessup
A pretty young woman will do anything to escape her deadly dull existence in the backlots of Wales. But when she reaches the bright lights of London is the price too high?...
Romeo and Juliet
Character: Nurse
BBC Play of the Month adaptation of Shakespeare's tragic love story....
Wide-Eyed and Legless
Character: Deric's Mother
Diana and Deric have an ideal marriage: they thrive in each other's company, they're funny, and they enjoy their two grown children and Deric's dotty mother; the trouble is, Diana can no longer walk and her malady defies medical diagnosis. To care for Diana, Deric is letting his business slide, but at a civic luncheon, he is seated next to Aileen Armitage, a novelist who is blind. They have a nice time, and on the sly, Diana contacts Aileen to made an odd request. Diana's declining health and he...
Street Corner
Character: Mrs. Perkins
A pseudo-documentary focusing on the daily work and routine of women police officers built around three different storylines....
The Lodger
Character: First Murder Victim Katie (uncredited)
In Victorian era London, the inhabitants of a family home with rented rooms upstairs fear the new lodger is Jack the Ripper....
Two Thousand Women
Character: Mrs. Burtshaw
During the Second World War, three downed English airmen hide out with women's internment camp in France....
The Magic Box
Character: Doctor's Housekeeper
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved....
Sailor Beware
Character: Mrs Lack
Battle-axe Emma Hornett dominates her hen-pecked husband Henry, his meek sister Edie and daughter Shirley. Shirley is to marry young sailor Albert,raised in an orphanage,and he and best man Carnoustie stay with the Hornetts on the eve of the wedding....
The Good Companions
Character: Mrs Oakroyd
The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth....
Home and Away
Character: Margie Groves
When George discovers that he has won the pools, there is huge excitement in the household. But it turns out that it's his son who has won, in partnership with the son of a woman against whom George has some ill feelings....
The Weaker Sex
Character: Mrs. Gaye
A British housewife does her own battles against the enemy during World War II....
Tiger by the Tail
Character: Mary
On the first night of his London assignment, newsagency reporter John Desmonmd becomes heavily involved with enigmatic Anna Ray. The affair ends when she is shot struggling for a gun she has pulled on him. This is only the start of his troubles, as Anna worked for a criminal organisation who know Desmond has now got her valuable contacts list....
Maytime in Mayfair
Character: Janet
Penniless man-about-town Michael Gore-Brown is delighted to hear he has been left a high-class Mayfair fashion salon. His intention is to sell it as quickly as possible, but on meeting Ellen, chief designer and manager, he quickly changes his mind and turns his attention to courting her....
The Villa Maroc
Character: Doris
A stolid British family from Bishops Stortford are adventurous and book a holiday in a villa in Morocco, where things befall them....
The Fox Trot
Character: Gwen
The first in a series of new plays. Arthur and Gwen, a cosy middle-aged couple, remember with nostalgia the pre-Motorway Britain of their youth. When Tom, an old friend, returns from voyaging the world their life takes a strange new turn....
The Courtneys of Curzon Street
Character: Maud
On New Years Eve, 1899, baronet's son Edward Courtney becomes engaged to Kate, his mother's maid, much to the scandal of London society. The film then follows their family through four generations, with separations, joys, tragedies, and service in the Boer War, WWI, and WWII....
The Frightened Man
Character: Vera
Kicked out of Oxford, a junk dealer's son joins a gang of thieves fenced by his father....
Memento Mori
Character: Jean Taylor
Several elderly friends and acquaintances in 1950s London are disturbed to receive mysterious telephone calls predicting their impending deaths......
The Cure for Love
Character: Mrs. Dorbell
Sergeant Jack Hardacre returns from the war to his contemptible fiancée Janey Jenkins intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger Milly Southern instead....
The Foreman Went to France
Character: Barmaid
Based on the true story of Melbourne Johns, an aircraft factory foreman sent to France to prevent the Nazis getting hold of some vital equipment....
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
Character: Old Betsy
Adapted from the Beatrix Potter story tells the story of the pignap of Little Pig Robinson by Captain Barnabus Butcher who fools Robinson into believing he is being taken on a trip to visit the land of the Bong tree; the truth of the matter is more sinister....
The Mayor's Charity
Character: Olive Major
Olive Major is determined that her year of office as Mayor will be a happy and successful one. But her appointment of Ex-Warrant Officer Higham as Attendant and Mace-bearer causes the storm-clouds to gather over Medburgh Town Hall....
Say Something Happened
Character: Elizabeth Mary Rhodes
An inexperienced social worker is sent to interview an elderly couple deemed to be “at risk”, but ends up learning just as much about herself....
The Galloping Major
Character: Tea Stall Woman (uncredited)
A syndicate is set up to buy a racehorse, but they end up buying the wrong one by mistake. Unfortunately the horse is useless on the flat, so they try entering him as a jumper....
Over the Odds
Character: Mrs Carter
A bookmaker struggles to cope with his two mothers-in-law....