I understand Wendy Richard has recently left the soap EastEnders, after a long stint playing Pauline Fowler. I am not altogether sure of the circumstances of this departure either on or off screen. Forgive me as I am not a follower of this programme, though I have I suppose flirted with it on and off a few times over the years. What little I do know is that the character of Pauline was rather dark not to say depressing , probably in keeping with the show in general. The Wendy Richard I want to talk about is altogether different.
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Any comedy addict from the 70's will remember Wendy for numerous appearances in sit-coms and films. Her most famous role was of course Shirley Brahms in Are You Being Served ? which ran for 69 episodes between 1972 and 1985. She continued playing the character in the spin off series Grace and Favour which lasted for 12 shows in 1992 and 1993. I will blog AYBS another time. It was the more minor roles I wanted to remember today because Wendy does seem to pop up in loads of comedy episodes. She was, without doubt, a good looking girl, and her parts ( or maybe I should say her roles ) were normally sexy and flirty. Although born on Teeside her accent was a Cockney screech. She appeared in The Likely Lads in 1965, an early episode of Up Pompeii in 1970 (where she played Soppia in The Ides of March), Please Sir ! (1971), On The Buses (1971) and in the feature film of the same name also in '71. I was watching this film just the other day and there she was .................only for a minute or so in a scene where her smalls are wrongly taken from a launderette by Stan Butler who then manages to offload them onto 'Blakey' just as the police arrive ! In 1972 she popped up in Bless This House and then in four separate episodes of Dad's Army between 1970 and 1973 (in which she played two totally different women - one being Shirley, Private Joe Walker's girlfriend). Add to these two Carry On films - Carry On Matron in 1972 where she played Miss Willing and the next year Carry On Girls as the fantastically named Ida Downs ! She had earlier appeared in a fifty minute special entitled Carry On Christmas Again (1970) and the film Doctor In Clover (1966).
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Although none of these were significant roles by comparison with Miss Brahms , Wendy Richard was nevertheless a well known actress prior to Are You Being Served ? hitting our screens. I certainly remember Not On Your Nellie which starred the great Hylda Baker as a pub landlady. Wendy was her busty barmaid. I also remember vaguely a sitcom called Both Ends Meet in which Wendy played a character called Maude. It was from 1972 and set in a sausage factory. The main star was Dora Bryan. Two series were made and the second one was renamed Dora. I am not sure if this programme was shown nationwide or not, it was made by Anglia TV so was definitely shown in my neck of the woods. Wendy Richard also appeared in Spooners Patch though I don't remember her in it. I do however have a vague memory of the programme. It was a police comedy , rather feisty and controversial (it was written by Johnny Speight and Ray Galton post Till Death Us Do Part) and starred Ronald Fraser as Inspector Spooner. Her two remaining comedy shows I am afraid are a complete blank to me. Hugh and I from 1962-1966 was before my time (the main stars were Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott) and Hogg's Back (1975) which was a children's comedy starring Derek Royle ( who you may not know but was in fact to later play 'the corpse' in that famous Fawlty episode).
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Wendy Richard was once quoted as saying ' I think I'm employed because of my funny voice. It's like cracked glass'. I think it fair to say her attraction laid wholly elsewhere. Upon landing the Pauline Fowler role she said it was a challenge and that she could not go on playing dolly birds forever. I for one will always remember the Wendy Richard of the 70's and 80's.
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