Barbara Keogh
Encyclopedia
Barbara Keogh was a British actress who is possibly best remembered for playing Lilly Mattock
in the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
, as well as playing various roles in comedy sketch-show, Little Britain
.
She was born in Cheshire
, and after the Second World War
trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and then the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
.
and Ronnie Barker
, who she was to work with later in Open All Hours
and The Two Ronnies
. There followed a tour of Teahouse of the August Moon with Bill Kerr
.
In the late fifties and through to the seventies Barbara was a regular on television, making guest appearances on numerous programmes such as Dixon of Dock Green
, Z-Cars
, Crossroads, The Sweeney
, Coronation Street
and The Newcomers
. She also featured in the groundbreaking 'On Giant’s Shoulders' with Judi Dench
.
Alongside her television career, her stage career flourished. She performed in No One Was Saved with a young Maureen Lipman
at the Royal Court, and with David Hemmings
in Adventures of the Skin Trade, which was directed by James Roose-Evans
at the then newly established Hampstead Theatre
. She also played at the Royal National Theatre
in three productions - John Gabriel Borkman with Sir Ralph Richardson
and Dame Peggy Ashcroft
, Plunder with Dinsdale Landen
and Frank Finlay
, and Engaged with Jonathan Pryce
.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, Barbara’s career went from strength to strength. On stage she worked alongside Bob Hoskins
, Helen Mirren
and Pete Postlethwaite
in Adrian Noble’s production of The Duchess of Malfi and toured in Alan Ayckbourn’s Sisterly Feelings with Peter Sallis
, Trudie Styler
, Tessa Peake-Jones
and Bryan Pringle
.
On television she worked with the legendary Alan Clarke
in his production of Jim Cartwright’s Road (1987) and made appearances in Juliet Bravo
, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
, Heartbeat, Game On, My Family, Casualty
and numerous others. She played Aunt Helen in a second series episode of Joking Apart
.
She also starred on the big screen, most notably in Tai Pan, The Virgin Soldiers, Princess Caraboo with Kevin Kline
and cult classic The Abominable Dr. Phibes
, alongside Vincent Price
and Terry-Thomas
, playing the latter’s housekeeper.
She was still working (on Little Britain
) four days before her death in 2005.
Lilly Mattock
Lilly Mattock is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Barbara Keogh from 1998–1999. Lilly liked to forget her age and concentrate on having fun...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, as well as playing various roles in comedy sketch-show, Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
.
She was born in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, and after the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and then the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...
.
Career
Like many of her contemporaries she went into weekly repertory, an experience she always valued for the wonderful variety of roles she played, which included characters such as 'Mrs Malaprop' in The Rivals and 'Mrs Danvers' in Rebecca. At Kidderminster Repertory Theatre, she acted alongside John OsborneJohn Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
and Ronnie Barker
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...
, who she was to work with later in Open All Hours
Open All Hours
Open All Hours is a BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke which ran for four series a first run in 1976, a second run in 1981, third in 1982 and finally with a fourth run in 1985, with a pilot episode from the Seven of One series in 1973...
and The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...
. There followed a tour of Teahouse of the August Moon with Bill Kerr
Bill Kerr
William 'Bill' Kerr is an Australian film and television actor. He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia....
.
In the late fifties and through to the seventies Barbara was a regular on television, making guest appearances on numerous programmes such as Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
, Z-Cars
Z-Cars
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 in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
, Crossroads, The Sweeney
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
and The Newcomers
The Newcomers
The Newcomers may refer to:* The Newcomers , British soap opera aired by the BBC * The Newcomers , Canadian television series aired by the CBC * The Newcomers , American film...
. She also featured in the groundbreaking 'On Giant’s Shoulders' with Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
.
Alongside her television career, her stage career flourished. She performed in No One Was Saved with a young Maureen Lipman
Maureen Lipman
Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
at the Royal Court, and with David Hemmings
David Hemmings
David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....
in Adventures of the Skin Trade, which was directed by James Roose-Evans
James Roose-Evans
James Roose-Evans is a British theatre director, script-writer, priest and writer on experimental theatre, gesture, ritual and meditation. In 1959 he founded the Hampstead Theatre Club, in London; and in 1974 the Bleddfa Centre for creativity and spirituality, in Powys.-Biography:James...
at the then newly established Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...
. She also played at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in three productions - John Gabriel Borkman with Sir Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
and Dame Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
, Plunder with Dinsdale Landen
Dinsdale Landen
Dinsdale James Landen was a British actor known mainly for his television appearances.Landen was born at Margate. He made his television debut in 1959 as Pip in an adaptation of Great Expectations and made his film debut in 1960, with a walk-on part in The League of Gentlemen...
and Frank Finlay
Frank Finlay
Francis Finlay, CBE is an English stage, film and television actor.-Personal life:Finlay was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Margaret and Josiah Finlay, a butcher. A devout Catholic, he belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild. He was educated at St...
, and Engaged with Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, Barbara’s career went from strength to strength. On stage she worked alongside Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
and Pete Postlethwaite
Pete Postlethwaite
Peter William "Pete" Postlethwaite, OBE, was an English stage, film and television actor.After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr...
in Adrian Noble’s production of The Duchess of Malfi and toured in Alan Ayckbourn’s Sisterly Feelings with Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...
, Trudie Styler
Trudie Styler
Trudie Styler is an English actress and producer. She is the second wife of the musician Sting.-Life and career:Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. She attended North Bromsgrove High School, where one of her teachers was Clifford T. Ward...
, Tessa Peake-Jones
Tessa Peake-Jones
Tessa Peake-Jones is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Raquel in the television comedy series Only Fools and Horses. She had a co-starring role in the 1999 TV series Births, Marriages, and Deaths...
and Bryan Pringle
Bryan Pringle
Bryan Pringle was a British actor who appeared in television, film and theatre productions.Born in Tamworth, Staffordshire but raised in the Lancashire town of Bolton he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1958, he married character actress Anne Jameson; together they had...
.
On television she worked with the legendary Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today...
in his production of Jim Cartwright’s Road (1987) and made appearances in Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 1987 and 2000.-Description:The series comprises adaptations of the works of Ruth Rendell, many of which are based on her extensive range of short stories...
, Heartbeat, Game On, My Family, Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
and numerous others. She played Aunt Helen in a second series episode of Joking Apart
Joking Apart
Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky , who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced...
.
She also starred on the big screen, most notably in Tai Pan, The Virgin Soldiers, Princess Caraboo with Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...
and cult classic The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a 1971 horror film starring Vincent Price. Its art deco sets, dark humor and performance by Price has made the film and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again classics.-Plot:...
, alongside Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
and Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
, playing the latter’s housekeeper.
She was still working (on Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
) four days before her death in 2005.
Filmography
- Dark CornersDark CornersDark Corners is a 2006 horror-thriller film starring Thora Birch as a woman who can't escape her bad dreams. The line begins to blur between reality and the horror that lives in her mind, making everyone wonder what's really happening.-Cast:...
Old Woman (2006) - Mike Bassett: ManagerMike Bassett: ManagerMike Bassett: Manager is a British TV comedy series, which began transmitting from 29 September 2005 on ITV. It is a follow-up to the film Mike Bassett: England Manager, and stars Ricky Tomlinson in the title role Steve Edge as his assistant, and Amanda Redman as his long-suffering wife, Karine...
Margaret (2005) - .357.357 (film).357 is a short film directed by Scott Rawsthorne in the United Kingdom. It won the 2005 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival award for Best Short Film - Drama. The film was written by Peter Devonald and Kevin Scrantz. Produced by Jon Shaikh and Bernie Costello. Executive...
Old Woman (2005) - Bloodlines Soho Bartender (2005)
- Little BritainLittle BritainLittle Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
Mrs. Dawes (2003–2005), Mrs. Craig (2004), Various other roles (2005) - Ready When You Are Mr. McGill Mrs. Danby (2003)
- The Secret Maureen (2002)
- Tough LoveTough loveTough love is an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run. The phrase was evidently coined by Bill Milliken when he wrote the book Tough Love in 1968 and has been used by numerous authors since then.In most uses, there must...
Lady Mayoress (2000) - EastEndersEastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
Lilly Mattock (1998–1999) - Lost in FranceLost in France"Lost in France" is a debut single by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, released in 1976 on the RCA Records label #2734. It was written by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe. The song was included in her debut album The World Starts Tonight in 1977...
Gran (1998) - BramwellBramwellBramwell is a British television series starring Jemma Redgrave as Dr. Eleanor Bramwell, a woman challenging the domination of men in the medical establishment, who runs a free hospital for the poor in the East End of London, during the late Victorian era .The series by Carlton Television was shown...
Landlady (1998) - The GrimleysThe GrimleysThe Grimleys is a nostalgic comedy-drama television series set on a council estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England in the mid-1970s. It was first broadcast by Granada TV for ITV in 1999, following a pilot in 1997, and concluded in 2001 after three series....
Nan Grimley (1997–1999) - Jane EyreJane Eyre (1997 film)Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations. This version appeared on the A&E Television Network in 1997....
Miss Abbot (1997) - Brazen Hussies Ruby (1996)
- Princess CarabooPrincess Caraboo (film)Princess Caraboo is a 1994 British-American historical comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Michael Austin, based on the real-life 19th-century character Princess Caraboo, who passed herself off in British society as an exotic princess who spoke a strange foreign language; she is portrayed...
Mrs. Wilberforce (1994) - Dead Romantic Mrs. Rankin (1992)
- Murder Being Once DoneMurder Being Once DoneMurder Being Once Done is a novel by British crime-writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1972. It is the seventh entry in her popular Inspector Wexford series.-Plot summary:...
Mrs. Foster (1991) - God on the Rocks Nurse Booth (1990)
- One Last Chance Agatha (1990)
- Making OutMaking OutMaking Out is a British television series, shown by the BBC between 1989 and 1991.The series, written by Debbie Horsfield, mixed comedy and drama in its portrayal of the women who worked on the factory floor at New Lyne Electronics in Manchester, tackling the personal lives of the characters as...
Sally (1989)