Josephine Ann Tewson is a British stage and television character actress. She is best known for her roles in popular and long-running British television sitcoms, such as Elizabeth "Liz" Warden, one of the long-suffering neighbours of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances, and Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine.
Early life and career
Tewson was born in Hampstead, London. Her father, William, was a professional musician and played the double bass in the BBC Symphony Orchestra; her mother, Kate, was a nurse, the daughter of Haydn Morley who captained Sheffield Wednesday in the 1890 F.A cup final. After grammar school, Tewson studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from which she graduated in 1952. She was married to actor Leonard Rossiter; the couple divorced in 1961. A regular comedy performer in sketches featuring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker on David Frost on Sunday and Hark at Barker, she later appeared in Mostly Monkhouse, a BBC Radio Comedy programme with David Jason supporting Bob Monkhouse. She also appeared a few times in Z-Cars and The Charlie Drake Show. Tewson played Edna Hawkins in the first six series of the British sitcomShelley. Later, she played Jane Travers in Ronnie Barker's sitcom Clarence, which he also wrote, and was his last starring television role before his retirement. Tewson is best known for her role as Elizabeth Warden, neighbour and reluctant confidant of social wannabe Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. Tewson appeared in nearly every episode for the 5 series run, providing an often rattled but pragmatic counter to the scattered and clueless "Mrs Bucket". Tewson was featured with John Inman in Odd Man Out, an unsuccessful sitcom, where they played half-brother/half-sister roles. She was rumoured to be Inman's cousin, though she has denied this idea in several interviews. She also appeared in the 1984 children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman as the characters Mrs. Briggs and the Fairy Godmother.
Later career
Tewson appeared semi-regularly as Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine, a series written by Roy Clarke who also wrote Keeping Up Appearances. She has also appeared in two episodes of the documentary seriesComedy Connections, talking about her work inKeeping Up Appearances and opposite The Two Ronnies. In 2009, she played the role of Iris in the radio drama written by Susan Casanove, produced by the Wireless Theatre Company. Other television appearances were in an episode of Heartbeat and as the competition judge, Samantha Johnstone, in an episode in the mystery drama Midsomer Murders. Most recently, she was featured in two episodes of Doctors as kleptomaniac, Audrey Wilson, and as Marjorie Page, a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Tewson played a nanny in a 30-second commercial for Nabisco Fruit Newtons, first aired in 1997 in the United States. She also played a school teacher in a Sugar Puffs "I Want My Honey" advert during the late 1980s/early 1990s. In 2012, Tewson launched her one-woman showStill Keeping Up Appearances? and toured across the UK.
