Actress;
Born: July 23, 1926; Died:May 2, 2012
Charlotte Mitchell, who has died aged 85 of pneumonia after suffering from breast cancer and myeloma, was an actress, writer and poet who was a revue star in the 1940s and 1950s but was best known for her portrayal of the housekeeper in the popular Sunday teatime series The Adventures of Black Beauty, from 1972 to 1974.
Born Edna Mitchell in Ipswich, Suffolk, she was the daughter of an engineer and a district nurse. Known to all as Bunty, she trained as a dancer but switched to acting after a knee injury and worked in rep before becoming a a revue star. She appeared in Tuppence Coloured (1947), alongside Joyce Grenfell, Oranges and Lemons (1948), Penny Plain (1951), and From Here and There (1955) with June Whitfield. She also contributed material to Airs on a Shoestring (1953), alongside Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, and Look Who's Here! (1960).
She also appeared in the Goon Show as Maid Marian in Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1954) and Tales of Montmartre (1956) and Ian Carmichael's wife in The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter, and his mother in adaptations of Dorothy L Sayers' novels about Lord Peter Wimsey.
Besides Black Beauty, Mitchell took part in the sketch series And So to Bentley, in 1947, starring Take it From Here's Dick Bentley. She was also seen in Not in Front of the Children (1967-70) as well as And Mother Makes Five (1975-76), both with Wendy Craig.
As Amy Winthrop, the housekeeper in the ITV hit The Adventures of Black Beauty (which boasted the catchy theme tune, Galloping Home, written by Denis King and performed by the London String Chorale), she starred alongside William Lucas, who played Dr James Gordon, a widowed GP moving from London to set up a country practice. Her last regular role was as PC Phil Bellamy's grandmother in Heartbeat (1997-99).
In addition, Mitchell appeared in 18 feature films, including The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), The Man in the White Suit (1951), Village of the Damned (1960) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). She also carved herself a reputation as a poet, her work frequently receiving requests on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please.
As a writer for television, Mitchell created the children's series The Kids from 47A (1973) and her plays included Summer and Winter (1965) and Buns for the Elephant (1976).
Her marriage in 1952 to the actor Philip Guard ended in divorce. She is survived by him and their three children, Christopher, Dominic and Candy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article