Joyce Grant
Acting
Biography
Joyce Grant (23 January 1924 – 11 July 2006) was a UK-based South African actress known for her comedic roles. Grant was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and her father encouraged her to move to London to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama. When she returned to South Africa, her roles included: "Lola" in William Inge's Come Back Little Sheba and as "Laura Wingfield" in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. At the end of the 1950s she returned permanently to London and appeared in: The Happy Apple, Something’s Afoot, The Club, Deathtrap and Tonight at Eight-thirty. On television she was in Gideon's Way "How to Retire without Really Working". She appeared in the TV musical Pickwick for the BBC in 1969 and played opposite Frankie Howerd on Broadway in Rockefeller and the Red Indians. In 1980, she appeared in the first episode of Hi-de-Hi! playing the mother of Jeffrey Fairbrother. In 1987, Joyce became a member of The National Theatre Company, appearing in three productions, Ting Tang Mine, Fathers and Sons and Six Characters in Search of an Author. In 1988, she played Aunt Em/Glinda in the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Wizard of Oz and Mother Superior in Black Adder S1E3-The Archbishop.She was in the episode Spy Probe of 'The Professionals' television series.
Known For

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
The Professionals

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.
Blackadder

Gideon's Way is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey. The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series. It starred Liverpudlian John Gregson in the title role as Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, with Alexander Davion as his assistant, Detective Chief Inspector David Keen, Reginald Jessup as Det. Superintendent LeMaitre, Ian Rossiter as Detective Chief Superintendent Joe Bell and Basil Dignam as Commissioner Scott-Marle. The show did not acknowledge any help from Scotland Yard, any other police force or advisor. Daphne Anderson starred as his wife, Kate with Giles Watling as young son, Malcolm, Richard James as older son, Matthew who seemed to have a lot of new girlfriends and Andrea Allan as daughter, Pru. Unusually for police stories, Gideon was shown as a family man at home though urgent phone calls from his bosses tend to disrupt family plans too often. However, he did admit in "State Visit" that his wife had walked out on him for a while years ago when he put the job first and her second. They live in an expensive detached house in Chelsea.
Gideon's Way

Classic sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques as brother and sister twins who have to tackle the trials and tribulations of suburban life.
Sykes

Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.
Centre Play

Hannay is a 1988 spin-off prequel series to the 1978 film adaptation of John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps which stars Robert Powell as Richard Hannay, a role which he reprises in the series, an Edwardian mining engineer from Rhodesia of Scottish origin. It features his adventures in pre-World War I Great Britain. These stories had little in common with Buchan's novels about the character, although some names are taken from his other novels.
Hannay

Six Dates with Barker is a 1971 ITV series of six one-off, half-hour situation comedies showcasing the talents of Ronnie Barker. Three of the stories were further developed: The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town was made into a serial as part of the 1976 sketch comedy programme The Two Ronnies; The Odd Job Man was adapted as a feature film, titled The Odd Job; and The Removals Person became Barker's final programme Clarence.
Six Dates with Barker

When one of Regan's snouts complains that his girlfriend's recent suicide was murder, the flying squad detective feels compelled to investigate. He uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the government, and finds himself fitted up, suspended and under the scrutiny of Special Branch.
Sweeney!
Comedy and sketches show that capitalised on Larry Grayson's slick style with a set consistent of a large marble staircase using dry ice drifting around the foot of it like a great London fog.
Larry Grayson
Shaw's comedy of ideologies looks forty years to the future at the impossibility of government as the British cabinet and monarchy face a day of "crisis" for the country. King Magnus is happy to engage a prime minister seeking to transform the nation into a constitutional monarchy, but who truly rules in this democracy: the king, the government or the businessmen? And do any of them care about the people?
The Apple Cart
The story of a young composer and his relationship with a fiery opera star over the course of several decades.
The Dancing Years
Maud has two men in her life - George and Errol. In an effort to decide which boyfriend to keep, she visits a clairvoyant who tells her that her ideal partner may, in fact, be a third person she has yet to meet. Recorded in a single studio, with minimalist sets.
Comedy Workshop: Love and Maud Carver

A moral philosopher at a university finds his own morals under scrutiny.