Daphne Heard
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Delia Phyllis Daphne Heard (21 August 1904 – 22 June 1983) was an English actress and acting teacher. She was born in
Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
,
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
. She appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies and TV series. She was perhaps best known in latter years as Richard's elderly mother Mrs. Polouvicka in ''
To the Manor Born ''To the Manor Born'' is a BBC television sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special one-off episode was produced in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by ...
''.


Film

Her film credits include roles in '' Goodbye Gemini'' (1970), the film version of ''
Please Sir! ''Please Sir!'' is a British television sitcom created by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey and featuring actors John Alderton, Deryck Guyler, Penny Spencer, Joan Sanderson, Noel Howlett, Erik Chitty and Richard Davies. Produced by London Weeke ...
'' (1971) as an old gypsy, ''
Jude the Obscure ''Jude the Obscure'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895 (though the title page says 1896). The protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man; he i ...
'' (1971) as Drusilla Fawley, and ''
The Triple Echo ''The Triple Echo'' (U.S title: ''Soldier in Skirts'') is a 1972 British drama film directed by Michael Apted starring Glenda Jackson, Brian Deacon and Oliver Reed, and based on The Triple Echo (novel), the 1970 novella by H.E. Bates. It was sho ...
'' (1972). She also appeared as the nanny in
Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
's film '' Three Sisters'' (1970) based on the
Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...
play, with
Joan Plowright Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier (; 28 October 1929 – 16 January 2025), commonly known as Dame Joan Plowright, was an English actress whose career spanned over six decades. She received several accolades including two Golden Globe Awards, an ...
,
Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the Cinema of the United Kingdom#The 1960s, 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from ''Whistle Down the Wind (film), Whistle Down ...
and Olivier himself as Chebutikin.


Television and radio

She performed in many other television serials, including '' Wild, Wild Women'', ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' (in a story-stealing turn in the serial ''
Image of the Fendahl ''Image of the Fendahl'' is the third serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 29 October to 19 November 1977. The serial was Chris Bo ...
'' as white witch 'Granny' Tyler), the sitcom '' Don't Forget to Write!'' as Mrs Field the cleaner, ''
Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...
'' and Nanny Webster in '' Upstairs, Downstairs'', series 2, episode 8, "Out of the Everywhere". In 1966, she was cast as a beleaguered tenant in ''Vacant Possession,'' a TV play produced by
Rediffusion Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV (TV network ...
. In 1971, Heard starred in a couple of episodes in the TV sitcom '' For the Love of Ada'' playing the nosey next door neighbour. In 1974, she played the part of Mrs. Froggitt in the pilot episode of '' Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt''. From its inception until her death in 1983, she played the part of Maud, the eccentric housekeeper, in the ''
Hinge and Bracket Hinge and Bracket was a British comedy and musical act consisting of two characters, Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket, devised and played by female impersonators George Logan and Patrick Fyffe. Hinge and Bracket were portrayed as a pai ...
'' radio series.


Teaching career

During the 1950s and 1960s, she was a member of the teaching staff at the
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) is a drama school in Bristol, England. The institution provides training in acting and production for careers in film, television and theatre. BOVTS was an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance a ...
.


Filmography


References


External links

*
A young Daphne Heard in the play ''She Stoops To Conquer''
(Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection) (*url updated)
Daphne Heard
(Aveleyman) 1904 births 1983 deaths 20th-century English actresses Actresses from Plymouth, Devon English stage actresses English television actresses 20th-century English businesspeople {{england-actor-stub