Wendy Craig

Anne Gwendolyn "Wendy" Craig (born 20 June 1934) is an English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms Not in Front of the Children, ...And Mother Makes Three, ...And Mother Makes Five and Butterflies. She played the role of Matron in the TV series The Royal (2003–2011). Early life Anne Gwendolyn Craig was born on 20 June 1934 in Sacriston, County Durham, the daughter of farmer George Craig and his wife Anne. She attended Durham High School for Girls, initially as a day pupil and later as a boarder, which she revisited in October 2007 to open a new building that had been named after her. She passed the 11+ examination and went to Darlington High School. When she was twelve years old the family moved to Picton, North Yorkshire and she attended nearby Yarm Grammar School. She trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based in the Royal Albert Hall, London. In 1956, Craig appeared in the West End alongside Robertson Hare in John Dighton's farce Man Alive!. Career One of her early TV appearances was in an episode of the Danger Man series called "The Gallows Tree" (1961) with Patrick McGoohan. In the 1960s Craig appeared in British films such as The Servant (1963) and The Nanny (1965) with Bette Davis, but it was her appearances in British sitcoms of the late 1960s/1970s which led to her becoming a household name, usually playing a scatty middle class housewife. She went from the BBC's Not in Front of the Children (1967–1970) to ITV's ...And Mother Makes Three (1971–1973), in which she played a single parent, which evolved into its sequel ...And Mother Makes Five (1974–1976). Then came Butterflies (1978–1983), a successful comedy on BBC2.