10/12/2026
Anyone who grew up with British TV in the 60s and 70s will probably remember this woman. She turned up in quite a few of the big shows from that era.
She was born in 1946 in Hove, Sussex, and started acting in the early 60s. Her first film role came in 1963, in 13 Frightened Girls.
It didn’t take long before viewers knew her well, and she had two outings in The Saint with Roger Moore.
Still, the show that truly made her a star was a sci-fi adventure series that launched in 1968.
Her character was a secret agent who, together with two fellow agents, gained remarkable powers after a strange accident in the Himalayas. It stayed on air until 1969 and remains one of the parts she’s most remembered for.
In 1969 she also showed up in Department S and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and a decade later in 1979’s The Aphrodite Inheritance.
On the big screen, she was in Casino Royale (1967), the horror picture The Ghoul (1975) with John Hurt and Peter Cushing, and, decades on, Batman Begins (2005).
In 1992 she popped up in Absolutely Fabulous, too, and in 2008 she became part of the EastEnders cast as Cynthia.
Outside of acting, she had a real gift for languages, speaking French, Spanish, German and Italian. She was so good that 10 Downing Street brought her in to help with translation work.
Her love life was pretty interesting as well. She went out with Omar Sharif and David Frost, then in 1980 married stage director Patrick Garland.
Yet animals were among the things she cared about most.
A vegetarian, she set up a sanctuary at her West Sussex home, looking after dogs, cats, horses, donkeys and plenty of other creatures.
She wrote books on how to care for animals and backed a number of animal charities.
Sadly, she lost her husband in 2013. She died of breast cancer on 12 January 2014, at the age of 67.
Her career lasted over half a century, taking her from 60s adventure shows all the way to present-day British TV dramas.
Can you name her?
