OUT OF AGONY
It’s shalom for the go-to Jewish mum of the 70s. Pint-sized redhead Maria Charles made her stage debut in the 40s, coming into her own as as Dulcie in 1953 musical The Boy Friend. Her West End career continued for decades (such as partaking in the West End debut of Sondheim’s Follies), and alongside it she developed an extensive TV and film career where she often took the niche of overbearing Jewish mothers, including BAFTA-winning drama The Bar Mitzvah Boy and most memorably as mum to Maureen Lipman’s agony aunt in Agony. Into the 20th century she played the conniving Lena Thistlewood in Corrie, and set herself up for this obit as Mrs. Reaper in Hot Fuzz. She was 93 and a unique for Are You Still Dying, Darling?, a rarity for a nonagenarian soaps actress to not be swooped up by one of the relevant themes!
Maria Charles
22 September 1929 – 21 April 2023, aged 93
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