Television & radioObituaryDeddie Davies obituary
Actor who appeared in several popular TV dramas and sitcoms and memorably played Mrs Perks in the 1970 film The Railway ChildrenDeddie Davies, who has died of ovarian cancer aged 78, will be remembered as Nell, wife of the station porter Mr Perks, in The Railway Children, the director Lionel Jeffries’s lovingly made 1970 film adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s Edwardian novel.
The character brings the three children – played by Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett and Gary Warren – into Perks’s home life, away from the railway station where they have their adventures. “It’s a birthday such as Perks never had, not even when he were a boy,” she tells them on seeing the gifts they have collected from villagers. When Perks (Bernard Cribbins) insists he will not accept charity, Mrs Perks looks on fretfully as they persuade him that the presents were donated with kindness and respect.
Usually to be seen with a wide smile, the 5ft 1in, bird-like actor subsequently brought her skills as a character player to the supporting casts of sitcoms over five decades – with timid, tearful and prim parts in sharp contrast to her own focused personality, which was augmented by a wicked sense of humour.
She was born Gillian Davies in Bridgend, Glamorgan, to Dolly (nee Shufflebotham), who ran her family’s business distributing and retailing china and giftware, and Llewelyn, a bank cashier. She had a half-sister, Norah, the daughter of her father’s first wife, who died of polio.
Davies’s passion for acting was demonstrated in plays at Howells school, Llandaff. She trained at Rada and, because another actor was called Gillian Davies, changed her name to Deddie – the nickname she had acquired because of her dedication to acting.
Rep seasons followed in Exeter, Richmond upon Thames and Manchester. In Colchester, she acted alongside Paddy Ward, whom she married in 1966. He was seen with her in several television productions and two films, driving the cart taking the Waterbury family to their new home in The Railway Children and as a bus driver in The Amazing Mr Blunden (1972 ), in which she played the servant Meakin. In the West End, they were on stage together in Toad of Toad Hall (Duke of York’s theatre, 1970).
Davies’s television career began with parts in period dramas – Millie in The Forsyte Saga (1967) and Lady Crawley in Vanity Fair (1967) – but casting directors saw her talent for comedy when she played the town tittle-tattle Madame Fouache in Clochemerle (1972), Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s nine-part adaptation of a 1934 French satirical novel.
A string of comedy roles followed, starting in two workplace sitcoms – as Flo, one of Dora Bryan’s fellow factory employees at Cannon’s Family Sausages, in Both Ends Meet (1972) and Mabel, in Fenner Fashions’ dressmaking workshop, in the 1977-78 remake of The Rag Trade.
Then came Sister Mary in Father Charlie (1982); the music teacher Miss Coombes in AJ Wentworth, BA (1982); the doctor’s surgery receptionist Miss Parfitt in the last two series (1985-86) of That’s My Boy; Mrs Little, trying to convince her daughter (Brenda Blethyn) that her fiance (Simon Callow) was not the man for her, in Chance in a Million (1984-86); and Miss Bamber, one of the advertising agency staff, in My Husband and I (1987-88). In the 1990s she was Sister Sheila in the final three runs (1992-94) of Waiting for God and Auntie Dot in the pilot Outside Chance (1993) and Time After Time (1994-95).
Davies showed her versatility when she switched to soaps and took five parts in The Bill (1991-2007) and four in Doctors (2004-11). Her roles in costume dramas included Nancy in The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978), Mrs Cluppins in The Pickwick Papers (1985) and Aunt Caroline in The Canterville Ghost (1986). She was also a favourite in children’s programmes, playing Mad Meg in The Black Arrow (1974-75), Mrs Wigson in The Phoenix and the Carpet (1977), Miss Fairman in Just William (1977) and Agnes Bell in Bernard’s Watch (2001).
Film roles were rare, but her last was in Pride (2014) as a bingo lover in a South Wales miners’ welfare hall where lesbian and gay activists bring money raised for them during the 1984-85 strike. “Listen, love,” she tells one. “I don’t care if you’re Arthur Scargill. Don’t talk during the bingo.”
Davies was also back in the valleys of her childhood to play the donkey owner Marj Brennig in Ruth Jones and David Peet’s comedy-drama Stella (2012-16), set in the fictional Pontyberry.
Off screen, she brought the same passion she had for acting to her charity work campaigning for elderly people. In 2007, as one of the Zimmers – billed as “the world’s oldest rock band” – she helped to highlight their isolation by recording the Who song My Generation, which became a Top 30 hit.
A year later, Davies – a trustee of Compassion in Care – investigated the quality of life in care homes for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. She spent five days in a home, in the role of the reporter Jon Manel’s aunt, and kept an audio-diary of her experiences in cold rooms, with residents sitting in a TV lounge between their very basic meals, left alone for long periods, and, in the case of the bedridden, without company or conversation. “I do think [the residents’] quality of life could be better with just a little bit more effort,” she said.“It wouldn’t take much more money but it just needs a greater vision of what it’s like to be completely helpless.”
Davies and her husband remained ardent theatregoers. He died in 2011.
Deddie Davies (Gillian Nancy Davies), actor, born 2 March 1938; died 21 December 2016
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