Bridget Joanna Turner (22 February 1939 – 27 December 2014) was an English actress. Turner played a radical English teacher, Judy Threadgold, opposite Alun Armstrong's woodwork teacher in

Alan Plater Alan Frederick Plater (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s. He is best known for the sitcom ''Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt'' and th ...

's '' Get Lost!'' for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, shown in 1981. Armstrong was unavailable for a sequel, so it was completely recast and became '' The Beiderbecke Affair'' with the parts going to Barbara Flynn and

James Bolam James Christopher Bolam (born 16 June 1935) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Terry Collier in '' The Likely Lads'' and its sequel ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'', Jack Ford in ''When the Boat Comes In'', Roy Fig ...

. She played Phyllis in

Alan Ayckbourn Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. As of 2025, he has written and produced 90 full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen ...

's TV film '' Season's Greetings (play)''. On 8 May 2009,

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...

stated in an interview that Turner was the original choice in 1974 for the role of

Sybil Fawlty Sybil Fawlty is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''. She is played by Prunella Scales. She is listed as 34 years old as seen on her medical chart in the 1975 episode "The Germans", presumably indicating she was born in 1 ...

in ''

Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, originally broadcast on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a dysfunctional fictional ...

''. She turned it down and the part was given to

Prunella Scales Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English retired actress. She portrayed Sybil Fawlty, the bossy wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy ''Fawlty Towers'' and Queen Elizabeth ...

. Turner died on 27 December 2014 in

Dorchester, Dorset Dorchester ( ) is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport on the A35 trunk route. A historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome, Dorset, River Frome to the south of the Dorset Dow ...

, at the age of 75, and was survived by her husband, Frank Cox. She was godmother to the actor Tom Burke.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
Bridget Turner profile
filmreference.com. Retrieved 14 January 2016. 1939 births 2014 deaths English stage actresses English television actresses Actors from Cleethorpes Actresses from Lincolnshire Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 20th-century British businesspeople {{England-actor-stub