'Nora Batty' actress Kathy Staff dies

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'Nora Batty' actress Kathy Staff dies
The death of Kathy Staff, who played Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine, could herald the end of Britain's longest running comedy series, fellow actor Peter Sallis said.

By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 6:47PM GMT 14 Dec 2008

Nora Batty's skirmishes with the likes of Compo, Clegg and Foggy will linger in viewers' minds Photo: REX FEATURES
Tributes have been paid to Staff, 80, who played the redoubtable Yorkshire battle-axe in 243 episodes of the popular sitcom.

She starred in the very first show in January 1973 and made her last appearance in August, before ill health forced her to stop.

Sallis, who plays Norman Clegg in the series, told BBC News that he did not know if the series could continue without her.
He said: "I can't actually say that I loved Kathy Staff but I'm terribly upset that she's not with us, I just think we don't know quite for sure whether we're going to do any more, but if we do she's going to be terribly missed."

He added: "She dominated anything that she was in. You could stop acting when Kathy was there because she was going to do it all for you."

Sallis is now one of only two of the original cast remaining, the other being Jane Freeman, who plays Ivy.

Staff died after a lengthy illness, according to the show's producer Alan Bell.

He said: "We're distraught, but we have very fond memories of her. She was such a good lady, she was religious, she would never do anyone any harm. But above all that, she was thoroughly professional."

Born in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, she had a long acting career that included stints in Emmerdale Farm Coronation Street and Open All Hours alongside David Jason and Ronnie Barker. She was also the cleaner Doris Luke in the ITV soap Crossroads.

But it was Nora Batty's skirmishes with the likes of Compo, Clegg and Foggy that will linger in most viewers' minds.

Despite her on-screen character, Staff was a gentle woman who often wanted to soften Nora's hard-nosed persona, according to Mr Bell.r

He said: "She would play a scene quite gently, and I'd say, 'But Kathy, you've got to harden up, because that's who we all love, the hard, tough Nora Batty.'

"And she said, 'Why can't I be just soft and gentle at times?' And I said, 'Maybe some time we will.' "

He said her character was built on the "contempt" he thought many Yorkshire women had for men.

"Yorkshire women tend to be like that. The women stay at home and the women rule the roost and they treat the men as a major inconvenience, always getting under their feet. Anyone who has lived in Yorkshire will see that character every day," he said.

Actor Mike Grady, who plays Barry Wilkinson, said of Staff: "She was blessed with a wonderful, quite formidable face, which I hope isn't disrespectful, but she knew it. What was good about her was that she was well aware of her work and what she could bring to a role, and she had that wonderful resonant voice, which was quite intimidating. She was actually a very sweet woman."

Brian Wilde, who played the pseudo-intellectual ex-Army corporal Walter 'Foggy' Dewhurst, died in March aged 80.

Bill Owen, who played Compo, died in 1999 aged 85.


Last of the Summer Wine in numbers:

35 years - the length of time it has been running for, making it the longest-running comedy programme in Britain

243 - the number of episodes produced so far

18.8 million - the number of viewers one episode attracted in 1985

1/3 - proportion of people who wanted the show cancelled in a 2003 Radio Times poll, making it - on that measure - the leas popular show in the survey

5 - the number of times it has been nominated for a BAFTA. It has never won.

3 - number of the Royal Family known to have been viewers - the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Queen, and the Prince of Wales

25 - number of countries in which Summer Wine has been broadcast

1 - number of Afghan presidents who love the show - namely Hamid Karzai
 
I remember he from the few times I watcher as Doris Luke as a similar role who had a very hard extrior but a very soft inside.
I seen her interviewed and is probably the most down to earth person I seen inteviwed.

Wonder if Compo will be chasing her up in heaven or will Wally see him off.

I've notices Peter Sallis when I've seen the odd episode the last series was taking a very small part in it and not looking too well.
 
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I watch this program nearly every day, and it is a shame. It might be the end of the series, but I think that there is room for a re-imagining of the series with perhaps a younger cast...

First Of The Summer Wine... or something.
 
Very sad news this week to hear about Kathy Staff, born just down the road from me. A legend of the small screen to keep that show running for so long. RIP Kathy.

It seems that the show will come to an end soon which is a shame but is also realistic as it can't go forever.
 

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