Dead Celebrity Alert

Avril Angers, who has died aged 87, was a comedian, actor, singer and star of radio, theatre — and pantomime. On television she had a career that spanned six decades, beginning in the postwar period with Terry-Thomas, taking in such shows as Coronation Street and Dad’s Army along the way, and ending in the 1990s with Common As Muck and All Creatures Great and Small. A onetime Tiller Girl, Angers had a particular talent for playing beguiling but slightly wacky heroines and she could switch from below-stairs earthiness to instant glamour with ease.

Born in Liverpool, the daughter of the Liverpool comedian Harry Angers and of Lilian Errol, one of the original Fol de Rols concert party, Angers went to various schools in England and Australia, and first appeared on the boards in 1936 in the chorus of a show on Palace Pier, Brighton. That same year she made her first big impression when she appeared at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, with the tiny comedian Wee Georgie Wood and the great Dame, Clarkson Rose, in the title role of Cinderella. … Read full obituary

Filed under Movies & Stage, Music, Radio, Television