Mavis Gladys Fox Pugh was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actress who made many appearances as mainly upper-class ladies in several British sitcom

British sitcom

A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

s including Dad's Army

Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

, Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served? is a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John...

and Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...

, as well as having a regular role in You Rang, M'Lord?

You Rang, M'Lord?

You Rang M'Lord? is a British television series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC...

. Before appearing on television, she had a long and successful career doing rep theatre

Repertory

Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...

.

Early life

Mavis Gladys Fox Pugh was born in Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 in 1914. Her father was a London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 solicitor

Solicitor

Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...

, and her acting talent was first noticed while performing in school plays at Downs College in Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. Pugh won a scholarship to the International School of Acting. Having worked in rep

Repertory

Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...

 in Amersham

Amersham

Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, Pugh toured in 1939 with My Wife's Family and in 1943 made her West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 debut in Junior Miss

Junior Miss

Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories in The New Yorker, some under her pseudonym of Esther Evarts...

. As well as doing several years in rep, Pugh toured music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

s and clubs with Hugh Paddick

Hugh Paddick

Hugh William Paddick was an English actor, whose most notable role was in the 1960s BBC radio show Round the Horne in sketches such as Charles and Fiona and Julian and Sandy...

 with the pair trying to beat each other's ad-libbing.

While performing at the Golders Green Hippodrome

Golders Green Hippodrome

Golders Green Hippodrome was built in 1913 by Bertie Crewe as a 3000-seat Music Hall, to serve North London and the new tube rail expansion into Golders Green....

 in 1956, she was spotted by Jimmy Perry

Jimmy Perry

Jimmy Perry OBE is an English writer, scriptwriter, producer, author and actor, most famous for devising and co-writing the BBC sitcoms Dad's Army with David Croft.-Education:...

, who then invited her to join his rep company at the Palace Theatre in Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

. There she met John Clegg, an actor who would later appear in Dad's Army, Are You Being Served? and You Rang, M'Lord?, but is perhaps best known as 'Mr. La-di-da' Gunner

Gunner (rank)

Gunner is a rank equivalent to Private in the British Army Royal Artillery and the artillery corps of other Commonwealth armies. The next highest rank is usually Lance-Bombardier, although in the Royal Canadian Artillery it is Bombardier....

 'Paderewski

Ignacy Jan Paderewski

Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...

' Graham 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...

 sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum

It Ain't Half Hot Mum

It Ain't Half Hot Mum was a British sitcom about the adventures of a Royal Artillery Concert Party, broadcast on the BBC between 1974 and 1981, and written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army...

, and they married in 1959.

Later life

Mavis Pugh did not begin her television career until she was in her sixth decade, with an appearance in the 1974 Dad's Army

Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

episode "The Captain's Car

The Captain's Car

The Captain's Car is the fifth episode of the seventh series of the British comedy series Dad's Army that was originally transmitted on Friday 13 December 1974.-Synopsis:...

". Two years later she appeared in one episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum

It Ain't Half Hot Mum

It Ain't Half Hot Mum was a British sitcom about the adventures of a Royal Artillery Concert Party, broadcast on the BBC between 1974 and 1981, and written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army...

, and in Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served? is a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John...

in the episode "Fifty Years On". She also appeared in two other Are You Being Served? episodes, "Take-over" and "The Club", both as different characters. In 1979, Pugh played Mrs. Chase in the Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...

episode "The Kipper and the Corpse

The Kipper and the Corpse

"The Kipper and the Corpse" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. It first aired on BBC2 on 12 March 1979. Distinguishing it from other episodes is its heavy use of Black comedy.-Background:...

". Mavis Pugh had small parts in two films, The Class of Miss MacMichael

The Class of Miss MacMichael

The Class of Miss MacMichael is a 1978 British comedy drama film directed by Silvio Narizzano and starring Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed and Michael Murphy. It was based on a novel by Sandy Hutson. The film depicts the attempts of an idealistic teacher, Miss MacMichael, to inspire her pupils in an...

in 1978 and Brothers and Sisters in 1980.

Mavis Pugh appeared in two episodes of Hi-de-Hi!

Hi-de-Hi!

Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom that aired on the BBC from 1980-1988. It was set in a holiday camp during the 1950s and 1960s and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had written Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The title was the phrase used to greet the campers and in early episodes...

as The Hon. Winifred Dempster, the aunt of camp entertainments manager Clive Dempster, the 1986 episode "Wedding Bells" and 1988 episode "God Bless Our Family". From 1987 to 1988, she played Mrs. Barrable in four episodes of the Ronnie Corbett

Ronnie Corbett

Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, OBE is a Scottish actor and comedian of Scottish and English parentage who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the British television comedy series The Two Ronnies...

 sitcom Sorry!

Sorry! (TV series)

Sorry! was a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1981 to 1982 and from 1985 to 1988. Starring Ronnie Corbett, it was written by Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, both of whom had previously written for The Two Ronnies, of whom Corbett was one half....

. In 1989, she appeared in an episode of Alas Smith and Jones

Alas Smith and Jones

Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1984 to 1998...

and an episode of Boon

Boon (TV series)

Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...

the following year. The largest role of her television career was that of Lady Lavender in all 26 episodes of You Rang, M'Lord?

You Rang, M'Lord?

You Rang M'Lord? is a British television series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC...

, from 1988 to 1993.

Mavis Pugh died in Chichester

Chichester

Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

, West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

 in 2006 aged 92.

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