Web Page 3021 20th April 2024 Patrica Hayes First Picture: Early publicity picture

Second Picture: Edna the inebriated woman

Third Picture: With Irene Handl and Warren Mitchel

Fourth Picture : With Benny Hill

Patricia Lawlor Hayes OBE was born on 22th December 1909 and fame in many stage and television dramas as well as regular appearance in both TV and Radio comedy shows. She was born in Streatham the daughter of George Frederick Hayes and Florence Alice Hayes. Her father was a clerk in the civil service and her mother was a schoolmistress. As a child, she attended the Sacred Heart School in Hammersmith. In 1928 she graduated from RADA and then spent the next 10 years in repertory theatre. She became an actress because her mother had been stage struck so attended RADA and won a gold medal but despite that she was out of work for a year. An early success was as Ruby in Getting Married at St Martins Theatre in 1938, As a small child she was sent to an acting teacher who taught her to recite The Murder of Nancy Drew by Charles Dickens and used to recite it in childrens competitions and win prizes She was featured in many radio and television comedy shows between 1940 and 1996, including Hancock's Half Hour, Ray's a Laugh, The Arthur Askey Show, The Benny Hill Show, Bootsie and Snudge, Hugh and I and Till Death Us Do Part. She played the part of Henry Bones in the BBC Children's Hour radio programme Norman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives from 1943 to 1965. She also played the part of the saucy boy in several early radio shows. She was cast in supporting roles for films including The Bargee (1964), The NeverEnding Story (1984), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and was also featured as Fin Raziel in the Ron Howard film Willow (1988). Her most substantial television appearance was in the title role of Edna, the Inebriate Woman (Play for Today, 1971) for which she won a BAFTA award. She provided the character voice for comedy puppet performances for television programmes such as Gran (Woodland Animations, 1982). She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1972 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. In April 1975, she was interviewed by Roy Plomley for Desert Island Discs. A sizeable, yet incomplete, extract is available to listen to and download via the programme's website on the BBC. In 1977, she appeared on the BBC's long running TV variety show The Good Old Days; she had been an early member of the Players' Theatre in London, an old time music hall club, from the 1950s onwards. In 1985, she starred in the title role of the TV play Mrs Capper's Birthday by Noël Coward. She was the mother of British actor Richard O'Callaghan (born Richard Brooke) by her marriage to Valentine Brooke, whom she divorced. She never remarried. She was formerly the head of the British Catholic Stage Guild, which her son later chaired. She was awarded an OBE in 1987. Patricia Hayes died in September, 1998 in Puttenham but she appeared posthumously in the 2002 film Crime and Punishment which had been filmed in 1993, but delayed because of a legal case. She is buried at Watts Cemetery, Compton, Surrey. She had become one of the best known ‘also rans’ on television and the cinema screen. Stay in Touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com