Ros Drinkwater (14 February 1944 – July 2022) was a Scottish-born actress, best known for her portrayal of

Paul Temple Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her jo ...

's wife, Steve, in the eponymous television series, based on the character created by

Francis Durbridge Francis Henry Durbridge (; 25 November 1912 – 10 April 1998) was an English dramatist and author, best known for the creation of the character Paul Temple, the gentlemanly detective who appeared in 16 BBC multi-part radio serials from 1 ...

. She later moved into

photojournalism Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

. Ros Drinkwater was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

on 14 February 1944. Her family was Anglo-Irish and her grandfather had been in the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

. Drinkwater worked as a dancer in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

before turning to acting.http://www.everymonday.ie/voices/90-the-beauty-spot--the-style-stakes.html In the late 1960s, she appeared in a number of episodes of British television series, including ''

Dr Finlay's Casebook ''Dr. Finlay's Casebook'' is a television drama series that was produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's 1935 novella ''Country Doctor'', the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fiction ...

'' ("A Matter of Confidence", 1966), ''

Champion House ''Champion House'' is a BBC television drama series created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who had previously devised ''Compact'' and ''Crossroads''. The series dealt with the Yorkshire-based Champion family and the dramas surrounding the fami ...

'' ("The Saddest Words", 1967), ''

The Saint The Saint may refer to: Fiction * Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations: ** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–1943), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders ...

'' ("Invitation to Danger", 1968) and ''

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

'' ("The Kazmirov Affair", 1969). She also appeared briefly in the film ''

Song of Norway ''Song of Norway'' is an operetta written in 1944 by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Edvard Grieg and the book by Milton Lazarus and Homer Curran. A very loose film adaptation with major changes to both the book ...

'' (1970) as one of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

's friends. Drinkwater's best known role was as Steve Temple (''née'' Louise Harvey; in the earlier radio serials, a Fleet Street journalist using the name Steve Trent) the wife of writer/detective Paul Temple ( Francis Matthews), in ''

'' (1969–71). This was a co-production by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and Taurus films of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. According to Matthews, Drinkwater chose her own "very expensive" designer clothes for the part. ''Paul Temple'' lasted for two years and was popular in West Germany. There appears to have been some disagreement between the BBC and Taurus over the casting of Steve Temple (who had been played in the radio series of ''Paul Temple'' from 1945-68 by

Marjorie Westbury Marjorie Westbury (18 June 1905 – 16 December 1989) was an English radio actress and singer. Her career lasted for more than fifty years. Born in Oldbury, Worcestershire, she studied Voice at the Royal College of Music in London between 1927 ...

), with the BBC wishing to drop Drinkwater, but Taurus favouring her retention. Drinkwater subsequently became a photojournalist, based in Ireland, where she had a small farm in

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of Border Region, Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town ...

. She died in July 2022 from lung cancer. Drinkwater is sometimes referred to as the elder sister of actor

Carol Drinkwater Carol Drinkwater (born 22 April 1948) is a British actress, writer and filmmaker residing in France. She portrayed Helen Herriot (née Alderson) in the television adaptation of the James Herriot books '' All Creatures Great and Small'', which l ...

, but the two were not related.

References

External links

Media Gems: Paul Temple Ros Drinkwater - personal photojournalism site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drinkwater, Ros 1944 births Living people Actresses from Glasgow British film actresses British television actresses