Creator / Josephine Tewson

Not to be trusted with Royal Doulton, especially the ones with the hand-painted periwinkles.

"I owe my TV career to Ronnie Barker; he was always a lovely, generous, good man. Around the time of The Two Ronnies, I was bending down looking into a supermarket freezer, when a woman suddenly appeared trying to see my face. I asked her why she didn't wait until I'd finished with the freezer, and she said, 'Well, I don't have much time'. That's fame for you."

Josephine Ann Tewson, (26 February 1931 — 18 August 2022), was a British actress best known for playing Elizabeth Warden in Keeping Up Appearances.

She studied at RADA after grammar school and graduated in 1952. She spent the rest of The '50s acting on stage in London and would continue to make theater appearances for the rest of her life. In The '60s, she began to appear on TV in The Charlie Drake Show. She would stay on TV for most of the rest of her career.

Throughout The '70s, she began to play bigger roles, which she claimed was thanks to Ronnie Barker and her guest appearances on The Two Ronnies. In 1977, she co-starred in Odd Man Out with John Inman as his half-sister and was rumoured to have been Inman's cousin. Other notable roles at the time were Penelope Marshall in No Appointment Necessary (1977) and Mrs. H. in Shelley. In 1988, she appeared alongside Barker in his final series, Clarence, specially chosen by him as the only actress he wanted to share his last scenes with.

In 1990, she was cast in her most famous role - Elizabeth Warden, the timid and shaky-handed neighbour of Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances. Tewson played Elizabeth in almost every episode and stuck with the series until it ended in 1995. She later worked again for the writer of KUP, Roy Clarke, in Last of the Summer Wine as Miss Davenport, the librarian. She toured the UK in her one-woman show, Still Keeping Up Appearances?, from 2012 to 2019.

In 1958, she married fellow actor Leonard Rossiter, but the marriage didn't work out and they divorced in 1961.

She died at the age of 91.

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Works on TV Tropes she appeared in:

Film

• Wilt (1989) — Miss Leuchars

Series

• Z Cars, 3 episodes:
  • "Wait for It" (1963) — Elizabeth Hepton
  • "The Mice Will Play" (1965) — Mrs. Rogers
  • "Aren't Policemen Wonderful: Part 2" (1968) — Muriel Finch
• The Champions, episode "The Night People" (1968) — Hotel Switchboard Operator (Uncredited Role)
• Coppers End, 13 episodes (1971) — Sergeant Penny Pringle
• The Two Ronnies, 5 episodes:
  • 1 episode (1971) — Leticia
  • 1 episode (1971) — Millicent Spooner
  • 1 episode (1975) — Cynthia
  • 1 episode (1976) — Woman on Train Traveller
  • 1 episode (1981) — Ethel
• No Appointment Necessary, 7 episodes^{show list}"Pilot", "The Shampoo Jungle", "The French Connexion", "Publish and be Damned", "An Offer You Can't Refuse", "Like Father, Like Son", "Shampoo and Set... and Shave!" (1977) — Penelope Marshall
• Whodunnit?, episode "No Happy Returns" (1977) — Miss Frisby
• Terry and June, 2 episodes:
  • "A Day in Boulogne" (1983) — Brenda
  • "Mistaken Identity" (1985) — Mrs. Robins
• Clarence, 6 episodes (1988) — Jane Travers
• Keeping Up Appearances, 43 episodes (1990-95) — Elizabeth Warden
• Coronation Street, 2 episodes (1994) — Peggy Phillips
• Midsomer Murders, episode "Judgement Day" (2000) — Samantha Johnstone
• Heartbeat, episode "Closing the Book" (2002) — Mrs. Morris
• Last of the Summer Wine, 61 episodes (2003-10) — Miss Lucinda Davenport
• Holby City, episode "Looking After Number One" (2006) — Mabel Phillips
• Doctors, 3 episodes:
  • "Now You See It..." (2009) — Audrey Winston
  • "The Bespectacled Bounder" (2012) — Marjorie Page
  • "A Quiet Life" (2015) — Eileen Wilkie
• Lewis, episode "The Indelible Stain" (2012) — Hazel O'Brien

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