Jean Boht, the star of beloved BBC sitcom Bread, died Tuesday. She was 91.
“It is with overwhelming sadness that we must announce that Jean Boht passed away yesterday Tuesday 12 September,” her family said in a statement. “Jean had been battling Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease with the indefatigable spirit for which she was both beloved and renowned.”
Her husband, the composer Carl Davis, died last month.
Boht was a popular actor who was best known for her role as Nellie Boswell in Bread. Penned by Carla Lane, Bread followed a working-class family led by Boht’s Nellie, the acid-tongued matriarch. The show aired on the BBC in the late 1980s and proved hugely popular.
Boht began her career at the Liverpool Playhouse before touring the UK in stage roles, working in many West End theaters. Her other credits included Softly, Softly, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Em and Grange Hill.
“It is with overwhelming sadness that we must announce that Jean Boht passed away yesterday Tuesday 12 September,” her family said in a statement. “Jean had been battling Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease with the indefatigable spirit for which she was both beloved and renowned.”
Her husband, the composer Carl Davis, died last month.
Boht was a popular actor who was best known for her role as Nellie Boswell in Bread. Penned by Carla Lane, Bread followed a working-class family led by Boht’s Nellie, the acid-tongued matriarch. The show aired on the BBC in the late 1980s and proved hugely popular.
Boht began her career at the Liverpool Playhouse before touring the UK in stage roles, working in many West End theaters. Her other credits included Softly, Softly, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Em and Grange Hill.
- 9/13/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
The great city of Liverpool has been well served by the sitcom industry over the years. The Liver Birds, Boys from the Blackstuff, Bread, The Royle Family. These are all highly successful and highly watchable, if occasionally mordant. They all fell into a bit of a pattern – a recipe of sorts, like Scouse itself (originally a stew of course) – with similar essential ingredients: wit, irreverence, strong women carrying weak men, a family theme, and a certain sassy style.
ITV’s latest stab at sitcom success, The Family Pile, falls uneasily into this line of succession. In this case, the mixture is: four sisters recently bereaved; three husbands-slash partners; three kids; one affair between a sister and another sister’s hubby; and one very large house. With the recent death of the siblings’ mum, following closely on from that of their dad, eldest sister Nicole (Amanda Abbington) sneakily puts their childhood home on the market,...
ITV’s latest stab at sitcom success, The Family Pile, falls uneasily into this line of succession. In this case, the mixture is: four sisters recently bereaved; three husbands-slash partners; three kids; one affair between a sister and another sister’s hubby; and one very large house. With the recent death of the siblings’ mum, following closely on from that of their dad, eldest sister Nicole (Amanda Abbington) sneakily puts their childhood home on the market,...
- 1/18/2023
- by Sean O'Grady
- The Independent - TV
Actor whose best known role in a seven-decade career came in a Harry Potter film in her 80s
The actor Hazel Douglas, who has died aged 92, landed her most prominent role in her 80s, when she joined the starry cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), as Bathilda Bagshot, the author of A History of Magic, a textbook used at Hogwarts school, and great-aunt of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. And there were more performances to come in a stage and screen career that altogether spanned seven decades.
In the ITV series Vicious, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi played Freddie and Stuart, a longstanding and quarrelsome couple. Hazel joined them in 2013 as Mildred, Stuart’s no-nonsense mother, failing to understand the relationship between the two men. In Elephants Can Remember, an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot from the same year with David Suchet, Zoë Wanamaker and Greta Scacchi,...
The actor Hazel Douglas, who has died aged 92, landed her most prominent role in her 80s, when she joined the starry cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), as Bathilda Bagshot, the author of A History of Magic, a textbook used at Hogwarts school, and great-aunt of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. And there were more performances to come in a stage and screen career that altogether spanned seven decades.
In the ITV series Vicious, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi played Freddie and Stuart, a longstanding and quarrelsome couple. Hazel joined them in 2013 as Mildred, Stuart’s no-nonsense mother, failing to understand the relationship between the two men. In Elephants Can Remember, an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot from the same year with David Suchet, Zoë Wanamaker and Greta Scacchi,...
- 10/11/2016
- by Brian Taylor
- The Guardian - Film News
Television comedy director and producer known for Fawlty Towers, Steptoe and Son and Till Death Us Do Part
Douglas Argent, who has died aged 89, was a prolific producer and director who scored hits with Till Death Us Do Part, Steptoe and Son, Fawlty Towers and Spike Milligan's Q8 and Q9 series – all with humour that pushed the boundaries of TV comedy.
He was gifted the second series of Fawlty Towers to produce in 1979. The creation of John Cleese and Connie Booth – who had divorced since the first run, four years earlier – went on to top a British Film Institute list of the 100 best TV programmes, as voted for by industry professionals. Argent modestly insisted that its success lay in the writing. However, producers guide all those working on their programmes and his track record was impressive, particularly in the field of comedy.
Argent was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, and his parents ran ironmonger's shops.
Douglas Argent, who has died aged 89, was a prolific producer and director who scored hits with Till Death Us Do Part, Steptoe and Son, Fawlty Towers and Spike Milligan's Q8 and Q9 series – all with humour that pushed the boundaries of TV comedy.
He was gifted the second series of Fawlty Towers to produce in 1979. The creation of John Cleese and Connie Booth – who had divorced since the first run, four years earlier – went on to top a British Film Institute list of the 100 best TV programmes, as voted for by industry professionals. Argent modestly insisted that its success lay in the writing. However, producers guide all those working on their programmes and his track record was impressive, particularly in the field of comedy.
Argent was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, and his parents ran ironmonger's shops.
- 12/6/2010
- by Anthony Hayward
- The Guardian - Film News
British TV actress Gilly Coman has died, aged 50.
Coman was found dead near her home in the Wirral area of Merseyside, England on Tuesday from a suspected heart attack, according to local media reports.
She was best known for her role as wannabe model Aveline Boswell in hit 1980s Liverpool-based sitcom Bread, which she starred in for five series before quitting to have a baby in 1989.
She returned to TV roles in the 1990s, appearing in U.K. soap operas Brookside, Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm, but retired from acting in 2000 to bring up her three sons and a daughter with husband Phil.
Bread creator Carla Lane pays tribute to the late actress, saying: "She was a nice girl, a good actress and she never questioned the lines I gave her.
"She knew how to walk to make people laugh and she knew the character better than I did."...
Coman was found dead near her home in the Wirral area of Merseyside, England on Tuesday from a suspected heart attack, according to local media reports.
She was best known for her role as wannabe model Aveline Boswell in hit 1980s Liverpool-based sitcom Bread, which she starred in for five series before quitting to have a baby in 1989.
She returned to TV roles in the 1990s, appearing in U.K. soap operas Brookside, Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm, but retired from acting in 2000 to bring up her three sons and a daughter with husband Phil.
Bread creator Carla Lane pays tribute to the late actress, saying: "She was a nice girl, a good actress and she never questioned the lines I gave her.
"She knew how to walk to make people laugh and she knew the character better than I did."...
- 7/16/2010
- WENN
'Bread' actress Gilly Coman has died of a suspected heart attack. The 54 -year-old star - who was best known for her role as Aveline in the Liverpudlian show - reportedly died suddenly after falling unwell with chest pains. Speaking about the late TV star, 'Bread' writer, Carla Lane said: ''She was a nice girl, a good actress and she never questioned the lines I gave her. ''She knew how to walk to make people laugh and she knew the character better than I did.'' As well as playing the legendary character, Gilly also appeared in 'Brookside', 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale' before giving up ..
- 7/16/2010
- Virgin Media - TV
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