Shirley Cain

Actress

April 30, 1935 (91 years)

Rochford, Essex, England, UK

Biography

No biography available.

Filmography

6.8

Tales of the Unexpected

Sister Wyman

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.

7.0

Playhouse

Mrs. Nevinson

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

7.0

ITV Playhouse

Miss Kindle

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

7.8

Upstairs, Downstairs

Miss Treadwell

Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.

7.1

Out of the Unknown

Frances Mervyn

Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.

5.0

Churchill's People

Alice

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

7.9

The Darling Buds of May

Mrs. Hall

An idyllic picture of 1950's rural England as seen through the lives of the Larkins, a farm family living in Kent. The show revolves around Pa Larkin, a man of a kind and mischievous nature with a penchant for getting into scrapes and talking his way out of them with equal equanimity; and his daughters, as they deal with growing up and discovering the joys and sorrows of young love.

6.3

New Scotland Yard

Mary Tyrell

New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television for ITV from 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day.

8.0

Victoria Wood

Marge

Victoria Wood was a series of six one-off situation comedies written by and starring Victoria Wood in 1989, who took a break from sketches, two years after her very successful and award winning series Victoria Wood As Seen on TV. Wood appeared as "Victoria", a fictionalised version of herself, in all six episodes - in The Library it was said that she "worked in TV" and in Over To Pam characters appeared to recognise her celebrity and in the final episode, Staying In, she was taken to a party to perform as a comedienne and was expected to go through her stand-up 'routine'. Her character often broke the 'fourth wall' of TV and spoke directly to the camera, but not in every episode. Bored with the sketch format and with a yearning to recapture previous success as a playwright, Wood came up with six individual sitcoms as a compromise. She admitted to finding the writing difficult. Though Wood was written as the central character, other lead parts were written with specific actresses in mind, like Julie Walters and Una Stubbs. "I want people to like me and the people who play my friends, and not everybody else" she said. Screenonline says of the shows "Modest in ambition and scale but rich in wit and acuity, the six playlets showcase Wood's eye for human foibles and her distinctively eccentric characters.".

10.0

Victorian Scandals

Julia Starky

Featuring dramatised versions of true stories that shocked mainstream Victorian society.

7.0

Pride and Prejudice

Mrs Philips

In early 19th century England, Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters vie for the affections of rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, who have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to eldest daughter Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with second-eldest Elizabeth.

7.0

Not in Front of the Children

Hilary

Jennifer Corner is a rather scatterbrained middle-class housewife. Her husband Henry is a school art teacher, and they have three children, Henry, Robin and Trudi.

8.0

Great Expectations

Mrs Gargery

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

6.0

Dombey and Son

Miss Tox

Dombey and Son is a television mini-series produced by the BBC in 1983. It was based on the book Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens. It was adapted by James Andrew Hall and directed by Rodney Bennett.

7.5

The Desperate People

Claire Seldon

Famous photographer Larry Martin receives a visit from his brother Philip, on leave from military service in West Germany. Philip is trying to find the wife of a deceased friend and his search takes him to Dublin. Sometime later, Larry learns that Philip never went to Dublin, but instead has disappeared.

6.2

Villain

Mrs Matthews

In 1970s London, Scotland Yard orchestrates the downfall of mob boss Vic Dakin after he crosses the line by blackmailing Members of Parliament.

5.4

Harem

Embassy Hostess

A young British woman is kidnapped by an Arabian sheikh and held captive in his harem. At first she frantically tries to escape, but as they slowly get to know and appreciate each other the difference between captor and captive dissolves.

6.0

Malice Aforethought

Miss Peavy

Malice Aforethought is a four-part 1979 BBC Two miniseries by Philip Mackie, adapted from Anthony Berkeley Cox's (pen name Francis Iles) 1931 noir novel of the same name. For ten years, Julia Bickleigh has despised and bullied her husband. For ten years Dr Bickleigh has dreamed of romance ... and escape.

6.5

The Lie

Lady Emma Brenton

Ingmar Bergman play looking at the cool and brittle relationship between a successful architect (Frank Finlay) and his academic wife (Gemma Jones). Commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation on behalf of European members participating in ‘The Largest Theatre in the World’. This, the Radio Times explained, was ‘a project which enabled a play to be broadcast simultaneously in several languages across Europe.’ This UK Play For Today version was directed by Alan Bridges, whilst an American version was put out on CBS, directed by Alex Segal

5.5

Return of a Stranger

Dorothy

An obsessed man returns to claim the woman he loves.