Penelope Keith
{{Short description|English actress (born 1940)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Penelope Keith (34688820200) (cropped).jpg
| caption = Keith in 2017
| imagesize =
| honorific_prefix = Dame
| name = Penelope Keith
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|DL|commas=on}}
| birth_name = Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|4|2|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Sutton, Surrey, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Actress and presenter
| spouse = {{marriage|Rodney Timson|1978}}
| children = 2
| years_active = 1959–present
}}
Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith (née Hatfield; born 2 April 1940) is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born. She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund after his death in 1989, and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.{{London Gazette|issue=60728 |supp=y|page=7|date=31 December 2013}}
Keith joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963, and went on to win the 1976 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for the play Donkeys' Years. She became a household name in the UK playing Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), winning the 1977 BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance.
In 1978 Keith won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for The Norman Conquests. She then starred as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the sitcom To the Manor Born (1979–81), a show that received audiences of more than 20 million. She went on to star in another six sitcoms, including Executive Stress (1986–88), No Job for a Lady (1990–92) and Next of Kin (1995–97). Since 2000, she has worked mainly in the theatre, with her roles including Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit (2004) and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (2007).
Early life
Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield was born in Sutton, Surrey in 1940.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6216985.stm|title=The Good Life of Penelope Keith|work=BBC News|date=29 December 2006}} Her father, an army officer who was a Major by the end of the Second World War, left her mother, Connie, when Keith was a baby, and she spent her early years in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex and Clapham, south London. Her great uncle, John Gurney Nutting, was a partner in the coachbuilding firm of J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited, and Keith recalls sitting in the Prince of Wales's car.BBC Four – [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hq4fd Penelope Keith and the Fast Lady], 19 February 2009
Although not a Roman Catholic, at the age of six she was sent to a Catholic convent boarding school run by French nuns in Seaford, East Sussex, with Judy Cornwell.{{cite web | title=Keith's Good Life | website=lady.co.uk | url=https://lady.co.uk/keith%E2%80%99s-good-life | access-date=26 April 2024}}{{cite web | last=Cartmill | first=Claire | title=Why not find out who the real Dame Penelope Keith is in this documentary? | website=Belfast News Letter | date=6 October 2022 | url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/arts-and-culture/film-and-tv/unearthing-the-real-penelope-keith-3868211 | access-date=26 April 2024}} Here she became interested in acting, and she frequently went to matinées in the West End with her mother. When she was eight years old, her mother remarried and she adopted her stepfather's surname, Keith. Whilst she did not get on with her stepfather, her mother was a "rock of love" to her. She was rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama on the grounds that at {{convert|5|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}} she was too tall. However, she was then accepted at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and spent two years there while working at the Hyde Park Hotel in the evenings.{{Cite book|title=A Celebration of The Good Life|publisher=Orion Books|year=2000}}
Keith began her career working in repertory theatre around Britain, including Lincoln, Manchester, and Salisbury. Keith's earliest appearances were in The Tunnel of Love, Gigi, and Flowering Cherry. In 1963, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and acted with them in Stratford and at the Aldwych Theatre in London.{{cite web | title=RSC Performances | website=Shakespeare Birthplace Trust | url=https://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/rsc-performances/search/rsc_person:keith-penelope | access-date=26 April 2024}}
Career
=Early career=
Keith began her television career in programmes such as The Army Game, Dixon of Dock Green, Wild, Wild Women and The Avengers. In the early 1970s, she appeared in The Morecambe & Wise Show, Ghost Story and The Pallisers. Her film appearances during this time included Every Home Should Have One, Take A Girl Like You, Rentadick and Penny Gold. In 1967, she had a minor role in Carry On Doctor, but the scene was cut from the final edit.{{Cite news|url=http://www.carryonline.com/carryonline/reframe.html?http://www.carryonline.com/carryonline/carryondoctor.html|title=Carry On Doctor |website=carryonline.com|access-date=26 May 2019}} She appeared as a nurse in A Touch of Love 1969.
Her best known theatre appearance, in 1974, was playing Sarah in The Norman Conquests, alongside Felicity Kendal, her co-star in The Good Life. Keith and Kendal would often film The Good Life during the day and perform on stage in the West End in the evening.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}
In 1977 Keith starred in Brian Sibley's comedy radio broadcast titled ...And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree,{{Cite web|last=Sibley|first=Brian|date=January 2008|url=https://briansibleytheworks.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html|title=...And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree (text)|publisher=Blogger}}{{Cite web|last=Sibley|first=Brian|date=December 9, 2013|url=https://soundcloud.com/brian-sibley/and-yet-another-partridge-in-a|title=...And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree (audio)|publisher=SoundCloud}} voicing a woman named Cynthia Bracegirdle whose boyfriend, Algernon Fotherington-Smythe, sends her the 364 gifts mentioned in The Twelve Days of Christmas.
=Television fame=
Keith achieved fame in 1975 when the BBC sitcom The Good Life began. In the first episode, she was only heard and not seen in her role as Margo Leadbetter, but as the episodes and series went on, the scope of her role increased. In 1977, Keith won a BAFTA award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" for her role of Margo Leadbetter.{{cite web | title=Television in 1977 | website=BAFTA Awards | url=https://awards.bafta.org/award/1977/television | access-date=26 April 2024}}
From 1979 to 1981, she played the lead role of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the TV series To the Manor Born. Following To the Manor Born, Keith has appeared in the lead role in six other sitcoms: Sweet Sixteen, Moving, Executive Stress, No Job for a Lady, Law and Disorder and Next of Kin. She also had the starring role in a TV adaptation of Agatha Christie's play Spider's Web. She won a second BAFTA award as "Best Actress" in 1978 for The Norman Conquests.{{cite web | title=Television in 1978 | website=BAFTA Awards | url=https://awards.bafta.org/award/1978/television | access-date=26 April 2024}}
In 1982 Keith starred in a TV production of Frederick Lonsdale's On Approval. In 1988, she hosted one series of the ITV panel show What's My Line?, following the death of its former presenter, Eamonn Andrews. She had a featured role in the 1998 ITV serial Coming Home.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}
=Work=
Keith has regularly appeared on stage, taking the classics and new plays across the UK. These include Shakespeare, Shaw, Sheridan, Wilde, Rattigan and Congreve. She played Lorraine in Noël Coward's Star Quality, while in 2004 she played Madame Arcati in Coward's Blithe Spirit at the Savoy Theatre. In 2004, Keith starred in the first of ten full-cast BBC radio dramatisations of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin novels, playing the title role. Two years later, she appeared at the Chichester Festival in the premiere of Richard Everett's comedy Entertaining Angels, which she later took on tour.{{cite web | last=Gardner | first=Lyn | title=Entertaining Angels, Chichester Festival Theatre | website=The Guardian | date=11 May 2006 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/may/11/theatre | access-date=26 April 2024}}
In 2007 she played the part of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest on tour, which transferred to the West End in 2008, at the Vaudeville Theatre.{{cite web | last=Billington | first=Michael | title=Theatre review: The Importance of Being Earnest / Vaudeville Theatre, London | website=The Guardian | date=1 February 2008 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/feb/01/theatre | access-date=26 April 2024}} She has voiced adverts including ones for Pimm's, Lurpak, Tesco and most famously, The Parker Pen Company, which was named one of the 100 Greatest Adverts in a Channel 4 programme. In 2012, she starred in Keith Waterstone's Good Grief,{{cite web | last=Live | first=Surrey | title=Penelope Keith talks about Good Grief | website=Surrey Live | date=31 October 2012 | url=https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/penelope-keith-talks-good-grief-4808839 | access-date=26 April 2024}} having previously appeared in the play's premier production in 1998.{{cite web | last=Cooper | first=Neil | title=Good Grief, King's Theatre, Edinburgh | website=The Herald | date=4 October 2012 | url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/arts_ents/13075525.good-grief-kings-theatre-edinburgh/ | access-date=26 April 2024}}
In 1997 she starred in the radio adaptations of To the Manor Born.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jpzw|title=To the Manor Born, The Rhythms of the Earth |publisher=BBC |access-date=29 May 2017}} In 2003, she appeared opposite June Brown in the television film Margery & Gladys. In 2007, she starred in a one-off To the Manor Born Christmas Special, Keith also voiced The Bear with Brown Fuzzy Hair in Teletubbies.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
In 2009 she presented Penelope Keith and the Fast Lady, a one-off documentary for BBC Four about Dorothy Levitt, the Edwardian motoring pioneer. She presented the four-part BBC documentary The Manor Reborn in 2011.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-14430516|work=BBC News|title=Penelope Keith hosts 'The Manor Reborn' at Avebury|date=6 August 2011}}
In 2013 she played the part of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the BBC period drama Death Comes to Pemberley, an adaptation of the best-selling 2011 P. D. James novel of the same name.{{cite news |last1=De |first1=Robert |title=The Good Life's Penelope Keith makes TV return in Pride and Prejudice sequel Death Comes to Pemberley |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/the-good-life-s-penelope-keith-makes-tv-return-in-pride-and-prejudice-sequel-death-comes-to-pemberley-8662249.html |access-date=18 January 2025 |work=The Independent |publisher=Independent Digital News and Media Ltd |date=17 June 2013}}
Since 2014, she has presented all three series of the More4/Channel 4 programme Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages and in June 2016 she presented Penelope Keith at Her Majesty's Service again for Channel 4.{{cite news|last1=Parker|first1=Olivia|title=Penelope Keith: 'Westminster doesn't understand rural problems'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/countryside/11842600/Penelope-Keith-Westminster-doesnt-understand-rural-problems.html|access-date=26 February 2016|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=3 September 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Graham|first1=Alison|title=Penelope Keith at Her Majesty's Service|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/d6vyx7/penelope-keith-at-her-majestys-service--series-1-episode-1|website=www.radiotimes.com|publisher=The Radio Times|access-date=12 June 2016}}
In December 2017, she presented Penelope Keith's Coastal Villages, a continuation of the Hidden Villages series.
In early 2018, she presented the Channel 4 series Village of the Year with Penelope Keith. It was announced in February 2018 that Keith would be starring as Mrs St Maugham in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden from 25 May to 16 June 2018.{{cite web|url=https://www.cft.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-chalk-garden|title=The Chalk Garden {{!}} Chichester Festival Theatre|date=18 February 2018|website=Chichester Festival Theatre|access-date=18 February 2018}}
Personal life
In 1978, the year The Good Life ended, she married Rodney Timson, a policeman. They had met while he was on duty at Chichester Theatre where Keith was performing. In 1988, ten years after their wedding, they adopted two boys, who were brothers. Keith and Timson now live in Milford, Surrey. Keith has a great passion for gardening. In 1984, she had a rose named after her.{{Cite news|url=https://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/23272/Return-of-Lady-Penelope|title=Return of Lady Penelope|first=Simon|last=Edge|work=Daily Express|date=26 October 2007}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/p/penelope_keith.html|title=Classic Roses|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929135432/http://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/p/penelope_keith.html|archive-date=29 September 2007}} She is president of the South West Surrey chapter of the National Trust.{{Cite news|title=The tale of five gardens|publisher=National Trust Magazine|date=Summer 2007}}
In 2014 she presented 4 Extra Goes Gardening in which she celebrated the work of garden designer Gertrude Jekyll at her former home, Munstead Wood in Godalming.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Keith was President of the Actors' Benevolent Fund from 1990 to 2022,{{cite news |last1=Butler |first1=Patrick |title=Actors' charity vote to reignite dispute involving Penelope Keith |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/13/actors-charity-vote-to-reignite-dispute-involving-penelope-keith |access-date=2 March 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=13 January 2024}} taking over after the death of Laurence Olivier. She was a Trustee of Brooklands Museum from 2009 to 2018.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Film |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1967
| Plain Nurse | scenes cut |
| 1968
| Hotel Assistant | rowspan="2" | uncredited |
| 1969
| Nurse |
| rowspan="2" | 1970
| Lotte | |
| Take a Girl Like You
| Tory Lady | |
| 1972
| Reporter | |
| 1973
| Miss Hartridge | |
| 1974
| Rennie | |
| 1976
| Mrs. Hollander (voice) | |
| 1978
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Massage Receptionist | |
| 1981
| |
| rowspan="2" | 1992
| Beauty and the Beast | Madame Bonbec | rowspan="2" | voice |
| Aladdin
| Madam Dim Sum |
Television
{{BLP unreferenced section|date=February 2025}}
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 1957-1961
| | |
| rowspan="2" |1965
|Miss Nash |Episode: "A Fine Art" |
| Six Shades of Black
|Lady Pandora Brewster |Episode: "There is a Happy Land..." |
| 1965,
1967, 1969 |Bride/ Nanny Brown (scene deleted)/Audrey Long |3 episodes |
| 1966
|Waitress |Episode: "Find the Lady" |
| 1966-1967
|Miss Willy Williams/Iris Bedford |5 episodes |
| 1967
|Betty Brogan |Episode: "ITV Summer Playhouse #4: Difference of Opinion" |
| rowspan="2" |1968
| rowspan="2" |Daisy |Episode: "Wild, Wild Women" |
| Wild, Wild Women
|Pilot |
| rowspan="3" |1969
|Frankie |2 episodes |
| ITV Playhouse
|Housekeeper |Episode: "Stables Theatre Company #2: Wedding Night" |
| Hadleigh
|Angela Frampton |Episode: "The Dinner Party" |
| 1970-1972
|Kate |Wanda Padbury | |
| 1974
|Mrs. Hittaway |2 episodes |
| 1975
|Mrs. Phillips |Episode: "The Patient" |
| 1975-1978
|Margo Leadbetter | |
| 1975-1984
|Storyteller |11 episodes |
| 1977
|Self |Christmas Special |
| 1979-1981,
2007 |Audrey fforbes-Hamilton | |
| 1982
|Maria Wislack |Episode: "On Approval" |
| 1983
|Helen Morgan | |
| 1984-1987
|Dora the Driver |8 episodes |
| 1985
|Sarah Gladwyn | |
| 1986-1988
|Caroline Fielding | |
| 1989,
1992 |Miss Robson |2 episodes |
| 1990-1992
|Jean Price | |
| 1994
|Phillipa Troy | |
| 1995-1997
|Maggie Prentice | |
| 1997
|The Bear (voice) |Episode: "See-Saw" |
| 1998
|Aunt Louise |Part One |
| 2003
|Margery Heywood |TV movie |
| 2006
|Nanna Poo-Poo |Episode: "Commando Babies" |
| 2011
|Queen Bee |Episode: "Why Bees Sing" |
| 2013
|1 episode |
Theatre
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 1959
|Harlequinade |Edna Selby |
| rowspan="6" |1963
| | rowspan="6" |Royal Shakespeare Theatre (press nights) |
| Julius Caesar
| |
| Henry VI
|Simpcox's Wife |
| Richard III
|Lord Mayor's Wife |
| Oedipus Rex
|Jocasta |
| The Lower-Middle Class Wedding Party
|Lady |
| rowspan="4" |1963-1964
|Henry VI | | rowspan="4" |Royal Shakespeare Company |
| Julius Caesar
| |
| Richard III
| |
| The Tempest
| |
| rowspan="2" |1964
|Richard III |Lord Mayor's Wife | rowspan="5" |Aldwych Theatre (press nights) |
| Henry VI
|Simpcox's Wife |
| rowspan="2" |1965
|Puntila |Dean's Wife |
| rowspan="2" |The Investigation
| rowspan="2" |Witness 5 |
| 1965-1966 |
| 1971-1973
|Suddenly at Home |Maggie Howard |
| rowspan="2" |1973
|Magdalena | rowspan="2" |Greenwich Theatre |
| Catsplay
|Ilona |
| 1974-1976
|Sarah |Globe Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Apollo Theatre and other locations. |
| 1976-1978
|Lady Driver |Globe Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Richmond Theatre and other locations |
| 1977-1978
| |
| 1978-1979
|Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga Fitzfassenden |
| 1981
|Moving |Sarah Gladwin |
| rowspan="2" |1982
|Maggie Hobson | rowspan="2" |Theatre Royal Haymarket |
| Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
|Lady Cicely Wayneflete |
| 1983-1984
|Judith Bliss |Sondheim Theatre, Theatre Royal, Brighton, and other locations |
| 1985-1986
|Mary |Apollo Theatre |
| 1987
|Miranda |Miranda |
| 1988
| |Theatre Royal Haymarket |
| 1991
|The Importance of Being Earnest |Lady Bracknell |Theatre Royal, Bath, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, and other location |
| 1991-1992
| |Theatre Royal, Bath |
| 1992-1993
| rowspan="2" |Director |Theatre Royal, Bath, Theatre Royal, Windsor, and other locations |
| 1994
|Theatre Royal, Windsor and Richmond Theatre |
| 1997
|Mrs. Warren |Theatre Royal, Bath, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre |
| 1998
|Good Grief, Pericles Productions |June Pepper |Theatre Royal, Bath, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and other locations |
| 2001-2002
| rowspan="2" | Star Quality | rowspan="2" |Lorraine Barrie |Apollo Theatre, Theatre Royal, Windsor, and other locations |
| 2001
|Theatre Royal, Bath |
| 2003-2004
|Mrs. Conway |Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Theatre Royal, Bath, and other locations |
| 2004-2005
|Madame Arcati |
| 2006
|Grace |Theatre Royal, Bath, Chichester Festival Theatre, and other locations |
| 2008
|The Importance of Being Earnest |Lady Bracknell |
| 2009
|Entertaining Angels |Grace |Chichester Festival Theatre, The Lowry, Salford, and other locations |
| 2010-2011
| |Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, Theatre Royal, Bath, and other locations |
| 2012
|The Way of the World |Lady Wishfort | rowspan="2" |Chichester Festival Theatre |
| 2018
|Mrs St Maugham |
| 2020
|Theatrical Digs |Performer |Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford |
Awards and honours
On 2 April 2002, her 62nd birthday, Keith began a one-year term as High Sheriff of Surrey,{{London Gazette|issue=56531|page=4283|date=9 April 2002}} the third woman to hold the post. She has also served in the past as a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey.{{London Gazette|issue=57207|page=1979|date=16 February 2004}}{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/6218219.stm|title=Actress honoured for charity work|publisher=BBC|date=30 December 2006}}
Keith was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1989 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette|issue=51578|page=10 |supp=y|date=30 December 1988}} She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours for "charitable services".{{London Gazette|issue=58196|page=8 |supp=y|date=30 December 2006}} In the 2014 New Year Honours, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to the Arts and to Charity.Staff (31 December 2013), [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25550751 "New Year's Honours: Lansbury and Keith become dames"], BBC News; retrieved 17 March 2014.
| class=wikitable |
| Year
!Award !Work !Result |
|---|
| rowspan=2|1976
|Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play |rowspan=2|Donkey's Years {{cite web|url=http://www.olivierawards.com/winners/view/item98510/olivier-winners-1976/ |title=Previous Winners: Olivier Winners 1976 |publisher=Olivier Awards |access-date=1 May 2015}} |{{nom}} |
| Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance
|{{won}} |
| rowspan=2|1977
|BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress |{{nom}} |
| BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance
|{{won}} |
| rowspan=2|1978
|BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress |The Norman Conquests / Saving it for Albie |{{won}} |
| rowspan="2" |BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance
|The Good Life / The Morecambe & Wise Show |{{nom}} |
| 1980
|{{nom}} |
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
{{commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|0445285}}
{{Navboxes
|title= Awards for Penelope Keith
|list1=
{{British Academy Television Award for Best Actress 1960-1979}}
{{British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance}}
{{OlivierAward ComedyPerformance}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Penelope}}
Category:Actresses awarded damehoods
Category:Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
Category:Best Entertainment Performance BAFTA Award (television) winners
Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Deputy lieutenants of Surrey
Category:English film actresses
Category:English radio actresses
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English television actresses
Category:High sheriffs of Surrey
Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners
Category:Actors from the London Borough of Sutton
Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members
Category:20th-century English actresses
Category:21st-century English actresses
Category:Actresses from Surrey
Category:People from Clacton-on-Sea