1. Lilian Ridgway, known professionally as Lynda Baron, was an English actress and singer.
29 Facts About Lynda Baron
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Lynda Baron is known for having played Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC sitcom Open All Hours and its sequel, Still Open All Hours, Auntie Mabel in the award-winning children's series Come Outside, and the part of Linda Clarke in EastEnders in 2006 and from 2008 to 2009, with a brief return in 2016.
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Lynda Baron attended Flixton Girls School in Urmston and then trained as a dancer at the Royal Academy of Dance.
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Lynda Baron appeared on television in BBC-3, a series in the vein of That Was the Week That Was, involving some of the same performers.
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Lynda Baron alternated with Annie Ross as the resident singer on Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life.
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Lynda Baron was cast in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who three times.
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Lynda Baron was heard as a singer in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters.
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Lynda Baron appeared in front of the cameras as Captain Wrack in the 1983 serial Enlightenment, and again in 2011 in "Closing Time" as Val.
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Lynda Baron is best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC sitcom Open All Hours with Ronnie Barker and David Jason which ran for four series in 1976,1981 to 1982 and in 1985, and was voted eighth in Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004.
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Lynda Baron had a small part in Minder, and played the middle-aged temptress Lily Bless'er in the Last of the Summer Wine episode Getting Sam Home.
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Lynda Baron appeared in the 1987 Christmas special of The Two Ronnies and appeared in the BBC Two comedy series KYTV.
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Lynda Baron then went on to star in the children's television series Come Outside playing Auntie Mabel, an everyday woman living in a bungalow set in Denham, who flew around on various adventures in her spotted aeroplane with her dog Pippin, educating children on how things are created and where they come from by visiting various factories or farms and even looking at wildlife in zoos.
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In 1997, Lynda Baron played the minor part of Renee Turnbull in Coronation Street and took guest roles in dinnerladies, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Sunburn, Nancherrow and Goodnight Sweetheart.
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Lynda Baron continued to work regularly on television and the stage in the 2000s, with credits including Fat Friends, The Bill, Doctors, Cinderella, Poole Arts Centre December 2001Peak Practice, Holby City, Down to Earth, Rome and Casualty.
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Lynda Baron briefly appeared in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 2006 as Linda Clarke, the mother of Jane Beale, played by Laurie Brett.
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In September 2008, it was announced that Lynda Baron would be returning to EastEnders.
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Lynda Baron appeared regularly in the series from November 2008 to February 2009.
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Lynda Baron appeared on screen in May and June 2016.
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In September 2010, Lynda Baron appeared in a one-off television drama, The Road to Coronation Street on BBC Four, which looked back at the early days of the British television soap opera Coronation Street.
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Lynda Baron portrayed actress Violet Carson, who played Ena Sharples in the soap opera.
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Lynda Baron was nominated for the 2011 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.
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On 26 December 2013, Lynda Baron reprised her role in a special one-off episode of Open All Hours on BBC One, entitled Still Open All Hours.
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In December 2016, Lynda Baron made a guest appearance in a Christmas special of Citizen Khan and, in January 2017, she appeared in an episode of Father Brown, which was to become her final television appearance.
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Lynda Baron appeared in the Barbra Streisand film Yentl, Carry On Columbus, Colour Me Kubrick and Scoop directed by Woody Allen.
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In 1987, Lynda Baron starred in the London production of the musical Follies at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
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Lynda Baron appeared at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester from April to May 2014 in Stevie by Hugh Whitemore, alongside Zoe Wanamaker and Chris Larkin.
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Lynda Baron again appeared in the play from March to April 2015 at the Hampstead Theatre.
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In 1995, Lynda Baron voiced the character of Nanny Ogg in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Discworld novel Wyrd Sisters.
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In 1962, Lynda Baron married hairdresser and music impresario Cyril Smith, who performed under the name Carol London; they later divorced.