June Whitfield

**June Rosemary Whitfield** is an English actress well known in the United Kingdom the 1950s for her work in radio and television comedy series. Born on November 11, 1925 in Streatham, London in 1925. Her father was the managing director of a company called Dictograph Telephones that had been started by his father in Yorkshire. Both of her parents were keen amateur actors, and she made her first stage appearance at the age of three. Her mother, Bertha, enrolled her at Robinson's Dance Studio. She later attended Streatham Hill High School, before being evacuated in World War II to Bognor Regis, where she attended St Michael's School and to Penzance in Cornwall. She also moved with her parents to Huddersfield, where she learned shorthand and typing, later studying secretarial skills at Pitman's College in Brixton Hill. In 1944, Whitfield graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with a diploma. In 1955, she married surveyor Timothy John Aitchison and had a daughter, Suzy, who also became an actress.

Whitfield's first big break was a lead role in the radio comedy "Take It From Here." She soon worked in television, working with actors Tony Hancock and Benny Hill several times before landing the leading role in the television sitcom, "Beggar My Neighbour," in 1966. During the next 15 years, she had many small roles on television, including "Dixon of Dock Green," "Arthur's Treasured Volumes," "The Arthur Askey Show," "Faces of Jim," "Steptoe and Son" and "The Frankie Howerd Show." She was also a cast member in four of the "Carry On" films before starting her partnership with Terry Scott in 1969, playing his wife in "Happy Ever After" and "Terry and June." (1979–87). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Whitfield also appeared in a series of Bird's Eye commercials for television.
Briefly returning to radio in the 1980s, she worked with Roy Hudd on the satire program "The News Huddlines" where she impersonated British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The radio program ended in 2001. She also appeared on stage several times, such as in a revival of "An Ideal Husband" and the pantomime "Babes in the Wood." In 1985, she sang a duet with Ian Charleson of the Irving Berlin song "You're Just in Love" in "A Royal Night of One Hundred Stars." In 1982, she was made a Freeman of the City of London and was made an OBE in 1985.

From 1993 to 2001, she played Miss Marple in twelve radio adaptations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books. She returned to film in the 1990s, starring in "Carry On Columbus" and "Jude and Faeries." She also supplied her voice to an episode of the American TV series "Friends" set in England.

Since 1992, Whitfield has appeared in "Absolutely Fabulous" playing Edina Monsoon's mother. In recent years, she has played a regular character in "Last of the Summer Wine" as well as a recurring character in "The Green Green Grass." She recieved the Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Comedy Awards in 1994, and she was promoted to CBE in 1998.

Whitfield continued to have appearances on television including roles on "Doctor Who," "Coronation Street," the BBC Radio 4 play "A Monstrous Vitality," "Absolutely Fabulous," "Midsomer Murders," "Eastenders" and "Jonathan Creek and Boomers." In 2015, she played Granny Wallon in a BBC One adaptation of Laurie Lee's classic novel "Cider with Rosie."

## Episode(s)

* February 4, 1961
* Soap Box Jury
* November 4, 1961
* November 25, 1961
* December 16, 1961
* Knickers World
* Showtime
* December 11, 1968
* The Boxing Day Special 2
* Aunt Mirabelle
* Portrait of a Bridegroom