Vera Frances worked with actors with such as Arthur Askey

Arthur Askey

Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...

, Tommy Handley

Tommy Handley

Thomas Reginald "Tommy" Handley was a British comedian, mainly known for the BBC radio programme ITMA . He was born at Toxteth Park, Liverpool in Lancashire....

, George Formby, Dinah Sheridan

Dinah Sheridan

Dinah Sheridan is an English actress who appeared in the films 29 Acacia Avenue and Genevieve .She made her film debut in 1937, and has frequently appeared on television...

, John Mills

John Mills

Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...

, Alastair Sim

Alastair Sim

Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...

.

Vera's father was a props and special effects man for Gainsburough pictures, at Grove studio's in Shepherds Bush and put her forward for an audition in 'Back-Room Boy

Back-Room Boy

Back-Room Boy is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Arthur Askey, Googie Withers, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott. A man from the Met Office is sent to a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island to monitor the weather...

' as the Cockney girl Jane. After the screen test for 'Back-Room Boy', she got the part and went on to make another five films.

When in her early teens Vera left the movies to follow her ambition to be a dance teacher. This proved to be very successful and resulted in a dance school. After marrying Dennis William Ward in 1953 Vera moved the school to March, Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, UK. Ward died in Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, aged 73, in 2000; she still lives in Cambridgeshire.

Filmography

• Good-Time Girl
  Good-Time Girl
  Good-Time Girl is a 1948 British drama film directed by David MacDonald. The film was based on Arthur La Bern's novel "Night Darkens the Street."-Plot:...
  
   (1948) .... Edie
• Waterloo Road
  Waterloo Road (film)
  Waterloo Road is a 1945 British film based on the Waterloo area of South London. It was directed by Sidney Gilliat.-Plot:John Mills plays an AWOL squaddie who returns to south London to save his wife from the advances of a philandering draft-dodger played by Stewart Granger.-Cast:* John Mills as...
  
   (1945) .... Vera Colter
• Get Cracking
  Get Cracking
  Get Cracking is a 1943 British, black-and-white, comedy, war film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Ronald Shiner as Everett Manley and George Formby. It was produced by Marcel Varnel, Ben Henry and Columbia Productions.-Synopsis:...
  
   (1943) .... Irene
• It's That Man Again
  It's That Man Again
  It's That Man Again was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran from 1939 to 1949. The title was a contemporary phrase referring to ever more frequent news-stories about Hitler in the lead-up to World War II, and specifically a headline in the Daily Express written by Bert Gunn...
  
   (1943) .... Daisy
• King Arthur Was a Gentleman
  King Arthur Was a Gentleman
  King Arthur Was a Gentleman is a 1942 British, black-and-white, comedy, musical film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Ronald Shiner as Sargent and Arthur Askey as Arthur King...
  
   (1942) .... Vera
• Back-Room Boy
  Back-Room Boy
  Back-Room Boy is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Arthur Askey, Googie Withers, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott. A man from the Met Office is sent to a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island to monitor the weather...
  
   (1942) .... Jane

External links

• Vera Frances on Britmovie.net