Patricia Hayes

For other people named Patricia Hayes, see Patricia Hayes (disambiguation).

Patricia Lawlor Hayes (22 December 1909 – 19 September 1998) was an English character actress. She is best known for playing the titular Edna in the Play for Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971), for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.^[1]

Patricia Hayes OBE
Born	Patricia Lawlor Hayes (1909-12-22)22 December 1909 Streatham, London, England
Died	19 September 1998(1998-09-19) (aged 88) Puttenham, Surrey, England
Resting place	Watts Cemetery Chapel, Compton, Surrey, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1936–1996
Spouse	Valentine Brooke ​ ​ (m. 1939; div. 1951)​
Children	3, including Richard O'Callaghan

Early life

Patricia Lawlor Hayes was born in Streatham,^[2] London, 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, Hayes attended the Sacred Heart School in Hammersmith.

Career

Hayes attended RADA, graduating in 1928. She spent the next 10 years in repertory theatre.^[3]

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.

Hayes 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).

In April 1975, Hayes was interviewed by Roy Plomley for Desert Island Discs. A sizeable, but incomplete, extract is available to listen to and download via the programme's website on the BBC.^[4]

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 1978, Hayes was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Rosalina in Filumena at The National Theatre.^[5]

In 1985, she starred in the title role of the TV play Mrs Capper's Birthday by Noël Coward.^[6]

Hayes played Miss. Willow, in one episode of the 1991 radio show, The Secret Life of Rosewood Avenue.

Personal life

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.^[3]

Death

Patricia Hayes died in September 1998 in Puttenham, Surrey.^[2] She appeared posthumously in the 2002 film Crime and Punishment which had been filmed in 1993, but delayed because of a legal case.^[7] She is buried at Watts Cemetery, Compton, Surrey.^[8]

Television roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1938	When We Are Married	Ruby Birtle
1957 to March 14, 1979	The Benny Hill Show	Various	(TV series)
1957 to 1958	Educated Evans	Joe's Mother
1958 to 1960	Hancock	Mrs. Cravatte
1962 to 1966	Hugh and I	Griselda Wormold
1963	Maigret	Didine Gulot	"The Judge's House" (Series 4, Episode 9)
1967 to 1969	The Very Merry Widow	Katie
1967 to 1975	Till Death Us Do Part	Mrs Evans
1968 to 1969	According To Dora	Various
1968 to 1969	The World of Beachcomber	Various
1969	Catweazle	Mrs. Skinner	("The wisdom of Solomon")
1971	Grasshopper Island	Lupus
1971	Edna, the Inebriate Woman	Edna
1971	The Trouble With Lilian	Lilian
1971 to 1972	The Last of the Baskets	Mrs Basket
1972	The Goodies	Hazel, or "Hecate, Queen of Necromancy"	"That Old Black Magic" (ep 3.4)
1974	Holiday With Strings	Air Hostess
1977	London Belongs To Me	Connie Coke
1980	Juliet Bravo	Doris Latham
1980 to 1982	Spooner's Patch	Mrs Cantaford
1981	Till Death...	Min Reed
1983	The Witches and the Grinnygog	Miss Bendybones
1983	Gran	Gran, Narrator
1983 to 1984	The Lady Is a Tramp	Old Pat
1984	Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense	Gran Waters	"And the Walls Came Tumbling Down"
1985	Marjorie and Men	Alice Tripp
1986	In Sickness and in Health	Min Reed
1993	Lovejoy	Lady Alfreston	(Series 5, Episode 3)
1995	Heartbeat	Flo	(Series 5, Episode 2)

Selected filmography

• Broken Blossoms (1936) – Minor role (uncredited)
• Went the Day Well? (1942) – Daisy
• When We Are Married (1943) – Ruby Birtle
• The Dummy Talks (1943) – (uncredited)
• Hotel Reserve (1944) – Woman
• Candles at Nine (1944) – Gewndolyn – Maid
• Great Day (1945) – Mrs. Beadle
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) – Phoebe
• To the Public Danger (1948) – Postmistress
• Poet's Pub (1949) – Mrs. Lott (uncredited)
• La Rosa di Bagdad (1949) – Amin (English version, voice)
• Skimpy in the Navy (1949) – (uncredited)
• The Enforcer (1951) – Teenager (uncredited)
• The Love Match (1955) – Emma Binns
• The Battle of the Sexes (1960) – Jeannie Macdougall
• Reach for Glory (1962) – Mrs. Freeman
• Kill or Cure (1962) – Lily – Waitress
• The Sicilians (1963) – Plane passenger
• It's All Over Town (1964) – Charlady
• Saturday Night Out (1964) – Edie's Mother
• The Bargee (1964) – Onlooker (uncredited)
• The Terrornauts (1967) – Mrs. Jones
• A Ghost of a Chance (1968, Children's Film Foundation) – Miss Woollie
• Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) – Grandma
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) – Miss Honeybun (uncredited)
• Carry On Again Doctor (1969) – Mrs. Beasley
• Fragment of Fear (1970) – Mrs. Baird
• Raising the Roof (1972) – Aunt Maud
• Super Bitch (1973) – Mamma the Turk
• Love Thy Neighbour (1973) – Annie Booth
• The Best of Benny Hill (1974) – Interviewer ('Words of Comfort') / Marie Quaint
• Danger on Dartmoor (1980) – Mrs. Green
• The NeverEnding Story (1984) – Urgl
• Little Dorrit (1987) – Affery
• Willow (1988) – Fin Raziel
• A Fish Called Wanda (1988) – Mrs. Coady
• War Requiem (1989) – Mother
• The Fool (1990) – The Dowager
• Blue Ice (1992) – Old Woman
• The Steal (1995) – Mrs. Fawkes
• Crime and Punishment (2002) – Alyonna Ivanovna, old pawnbroker (final film role; released posthumously)