Telly Today: From a celebration of Penelope Keith to a mole

PENELOPE KEITH: FROM MARGO TO THE MANOR BORN

Channel 5 tonight celebrate the life and times of personality Penelope Keith.

Born in April 1940 Penelope is best known for her TV work as an actress and presenter along with many roles across film, radio and theatre. She’s primarily known for her roles in the sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born. She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund after his death in 1989 and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.

Keith joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 and went on to win the 1976 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for the play Donkeys’ Years. She became a household name in the UK playing Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), winning the 1977 BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance.

In 1978, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for The Norman Conquests. She then starred as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the sitcom To the Manor Born (1979–81), a show that received audiences of more than 20 million. She went on to star in another six sitcoms, including Executive Stress (1986–88), No Job for a Lady (1990–92) and Next of Kin (1995–97).

Since 2000, she has worked mainly in the theatre, with her roles including Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit (2004) and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (2007).

However her formidable TV characters have so  dominated the public consciousness that Penelope has struggled to break free from their shadow. Penelope’s big break as Margo came as a
result of being spotted by BBC executives in a TV advert for Benson and Hedges. Within a year, newspaper articles were describing Margo as ‘the super-bitch from Surbiton’. She became the breakout star of The Good Life, but even in the 1970s she expressed regret that the public seemed unable to think of her in any role other than Margo.

In 1977, she made an unforgettable appearance on The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, with Margo’s forceful personality infusing her own. She was perhaps the only one of the show’s guests to get Eric’s name wrong and slap him around the face. Her next sitcom Sweet Sixteen backfired because her character fell in love with a work colleague young enough to be her son. This was followed by a decade of sitcoms on ITV that are sadly neglected today, including the distinctly un-Margo-esque role of Labour MP Jean Price in No Job for a Lady.

Like many actors of her generation, Penelope took her first steps in acting by working in repertory theatre. After a spell with the Royal Shakespeare Company, she made her first forays into TV in iconic comedy and drama series such The Army Game, Dixon of Dock Green and The Avengers. Penelope has been a constant force in theatre, with notable successes in the works of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde.

Penelope is famously tight-lipped about her family life, stating that she does not wish to invade the privacy of her adopted sons or her ex-policeman husband. Yet her colleagues and co-stars including Felicity Kendal and Judy Cornwell paint a portrait of her as a giggling, joke-loving, green-fingered, warm-hearted and nurturing personality, far removed from the TV characters that made her famous.

Channel 5, 8.40pm

THE VOICE

In the sixth instalment of the Blind Auditions, coaches will.i.am Anne-Marie, Sir Tom Jones and Olly Murs continue the hunt for the nation’s next vocal star. Acts are singing for their chance to win a life-changing recording contract.

Hopefuls looking for a shot at stardom will take to the stage in a bid to be crowned this series’ winner, securing a recording contract with Universal’s label UMOD. This series will also see a fresh new addition to the format – The Callbacks – where hopeful contestants that made it through the Blind Auditions will battle it out to earn their place in the Semi-Final.

Emma Willis once more presides over the proceedings.

ITV/STV/UTV at 8pm

THE MOLE

This series is a high-stakes competition format and in this reimagined version, twelve players work together in challenges to add money to a pot that only one of them will win at the end.

Among the players is one person who has secretly been designated “the Mole” and tasked with sabotaging the group’s money-making efforts. In the end, one player will outlast their competition and expose the Mole to win the prize pot. New episodes will air weekly for a three-week event.

Now streaming on Netflix