Patricia Lawlor Hayes (22 December 1909 – 19 September 1998) was an English character actress. She is best known for playing the titular Edna in the Play for Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971), for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.

Early life Patricia Lawlor Hayes was born in Streatham,Dennis Barker, "Hayes, Patricia Lawlor (1909–1998)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 available online. Retrieved 18 June 2020. London, the daughter of George Frederick Hayes and Florence Alice Hayes. Her father was a clerk in the civil service and her mother was a schoolmistress. As a child, Hayes attended the Sacred Heart High School, Hammersmith.

Career Hayes attended RADA, graduating in 1928. She spent the next 10 years in repertory theatre.

She was featured in many radio and television comedy shows between 1940 and 1996, including Hancock's Half Hour, Ray's a Laugh, The Arthur Askey Show, The Benny Hill Show, Bootsie and Snudge, Hugh and I and Till Death Us Do Part. She played the part of Henry Bones in the BBC Children's Hour radio programme Norman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives from 1943 to 1965.

Hayes was cast in supporting roles for films including The Bargee (1964), The NeverEnding Story (1984), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and was also featured as Fin Raziel in the Ron Howard film Willow (1988).

Her most substantial television appearance was in the title role of Edna, the Inebriate Woman (Play for Today, 1971) for which she won a BAFTA award. She provided the character voice for comedy puppet performances for television programmes such as Gran (Woodland Animations, 1982).

In April 1975, Hayes was interviewed by Roy Plomley for Desert Island Discs. A sizeable, but incomplete, extract is available to listen to and download via the programme's website on the BBC.

In 1977, she appeared on the BBC's long running TV variety show The Good Old Days; she had been an early member of the Players' Theatre in London, an old time music hall club, from the 1950s onwards.

In 1978, Hayes was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Rosalina in Filumena at The National Theatre.

In 1985, she starred in the title role of the TV play Mrs Capper's Birthday by Noël Coward.

In 1989, she appeared with her son Richard O'Callaghan in the Boon episode "The Rise of Fall of the Bowman Empire", in which they played mother and son, Elsepth and Cecil Bowman respectively.

Hayes played Miss. Willow, in one episode of the 1991 radio show The Secret Life of Rosewood Avenue.

Personal life

She was the mother of British actor Richard O'Callaghan (born Richard Brooke) by her marriage to Valentine Brooke, whom she divorced. She also had a daughter, Gemma Brooke, born in 1948. She never remarried. She was formerly the head of the British Catholic Stage Guild, which her son later chaired.

She was awarded an OBE in 1987.

Death Patricia Hayes died in September 1998 in Puttenham, Surrey. She appeared posthumously in the 2002 film Crime and Punishment which had been filmed in 1993, but delayed because of a legal case. She is buried at the Watts Cemetery Chapel, Compton, Surrey.Monumental inscription.

Television roles Year Title Role Notes1938 When We Are Married Ruby Birtle 1957 to March 14, 1979 The Benny Hill Show Various (TV series)1957 to 1958 Educated Evans Emma Troggs 9 episodes1958 to 1960 Hancock's Half Hour Mrs. Cravatte/ Aunt Edie/ 3rd Old Woman 7 episodes1959The Four Just MenMiss Lee"National Treasure" (ep 1.13)1960 to 1963Bootsie and SnudgeVarious5 episodes1962 to 1966 Hugh and I Griselda Wormold The Arthur Haynes ShowVarious21 episodes1962 to 1967The Ken Dodd ShowVarious6 episodes1963 Maigret Didine Gulot "The Judge's House" (ep 4.9)Boyd Q.C.Miss Twiss"End of Term" (ep 6.11)1967 to 1969 The Very Merry Widow Katie 1967 to 1975 Till Death Us Do Part Mrs. Carey/ Min Evans 14 episodes1968Misleading CasesMrs Jackson"Ill Met by Sunlight" (ep 2.5)1968 to 1969 According To Dora Various 3 episodes1968 to 1969 The World of Beachcomber Various 10 episodes1969The Galton and Simpson ComedyJoyce"Friends in High Places"1970CatweazleMrs. Skinner"The Wisdom of Solomon" (ep 1.12)1971 Grasshopper Island Lupus 9 episodes Edna, the Inebriate Woman Edna Play for Today (ep 2.2) The Trouble With Lilian Lilian 6 episodes1971 to 1972 The Last of the Baskets Mrs Basket 13 episodes1972 The Goodies Hazel, or "Hecate, Queen of Necromancy" "That Old Black Magic" (ep 3.4)1974 Holiday With Strings Air Hostess TV movie1975Softly, Softly: Task ForceAnne Hobbes"Female of the Species" (ep 7.8)1977 London Belongs To Me Connie Coke 7 episodesGalton and Simpson PlayhouseGranny"I Tell You It's Burt Reynolds"1979 to 1982Spooner's PatchOld Lady/ Mrs Cantaford14 episodes1980 Juliet Bravo Doris Latham "Fraudently Uttered" (ep 1.2)1981 Till Death... Min Reed 6 episodes1983 The Witches and the Grinnygog Miss Bendybones 4 episodes1983 Gran Gran, Narrator 13 episodes1983 to 1984 The Lady Is a Tramp Old Pat 13 episodes1984 Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense Gran Waters "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down"1985 Marjorie and Men Alice Tripp 6 episodes1986 to 1992 In Sickness and in Health Min Reed 3 episodes1989BoonElsepth Bowman"The Rise and Fall of the Bowman Empire" (ep 3.12)CasualtyMrs. Calthorn"Banking for Beginners" (ep 4.11)1990The BillMrs. Croft"Decisions" (ep 6.93)1993 Lovejoy Lady Alfreston "A Growing Concern" (ep 5.3)1994Murder Most HorridMrs. Templecombe"Mangez Merveillac" (ep 2.5)The Ruth Rendell MysteriesGrannie Nauls"The Master of the Moors" (2 parts)Woof!Great Aunt Sarah"High Temperatures" (ep 7.8)1995 Heartbeat Flo "Expectations" (ep 5.2)The Tomorrow PeopleFelicity Triplett5 episodes

Selected filmography

Broken Blossoms (1936) – Minor role (uncredited) Went the Day Well? (1942) – Daisy When We Are Married (1943) – Ruby Birtle The Dummy Talks (1943) – (uncredited) Hotel Reserve (1944) – Woman Candles at Nine (1944) – Gewndolyn – Maid Great Day (1945) – Mrs. Beadle The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) – Phoebe To the Public Danger (1948) – Postmistress Poet's Pub (1949) – Mrs. Lott (uncredited) La Rosa di Bagdad (1949) – Amin (English version, voice) Skimpy in the Navy (1949) – (uncredited) The Enforcer (1951) – Teenager (uncredited) The Love Match (1955) – Emma Binns The Battle of the Sexes (1960) – Jeannie Macdougall Reach for Glory (1962) – Mrs. Freeman Kill or Cure (1962) – Lily – Waitress The Sicilians (1963) – Plane passenger It's All Over Town (1964) – Charlady Saturday Night Out (1964) – Edie's Mother The Bargee (1964) – Onlooker (uncredited) A Ghost of a Chance (1967, Children's Film Foundation) – Miss Woollie The Terrornauts (1967) – Mrs. Jones Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) – Grandma Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) – Miss Honeybun (uncredited) Carry On Again Doctor (1969) – Mrs. Beasley Fragment of Fear (1970) – Mrs. Baird Raising the Roof (1972) – Aunt Maud Super Bitch (1973) – Mamma the Turk Love Thy Neighbour (1973) – Annie Booth The Best of Benny Hill (1974) – Interviewer ('Words of Comfort') / Marie Quaint Danger on Dartmoor (1980) – Mrs. Green Cymbeline (1982) – Soothsayer The NeverEnding Story (1984) – Urgl Little Dorrit (1987) – Affery Willow (1988) – Fin Raziel A Fish Called Wanda (1988) – Mrs. Coady War Requiem (1989) – Mother The Fool (1990) – The Dowager The House of Bernarda Alba (1991) – Maria Josefa Blue Ice (1992) – Old Woman The Steal (1995) – Mrs. Fawkes Crime and Punishment (2002) – Alyonna Ivanovna, old pawnbroker (final film role; released posthumously)

References

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