Lynda Baron

Biography

Lynda Baron (born 24 March 1942 in Urmston, Manchester, Lancashire) is an English actress. Her most prominent role is probably that of the extremely busty Nurse Gladys Emanuel, the object of Arkwright's affection, in the BBC comedy series Open All Hours. Some of her other film and television roles include Crossroads (1964), The Upper Hand (1990), Carry On Columbus (1992), Coronation Street (1997) and Nancherrow (1999). She has twice been a part of the science fiction series Doctor Who: first in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters where she was heard singing "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" and next in front of the camera where she was seen as Captain Wrack in the 1983 serial "Enlightenment". Her kindly persona was deployed to good effect in the children's television series Come Outside (1994). In the series, she plays the role of Auntie Mabel, who is a standard, every day woman who lives in a bungalow, set in Denham. She flies round on various different adventures in her spotted aeroplane with her dog, Pippin. On radio, she has voiced the character of Nanny Ogg in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Wyrd Sisters. In the 1960s television series Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, the successor to That Was The Week That Was, Lynda Baron alternated with Annie Ross as the resident singer. Baron appeared in the play Water Music shown at London's Cockpit Theatre in 1992. Water Music was written by award-winning playwright Lyndon Morgans, singer-songwriter and frontman with the Welsh folk noir band Songdog. She briefly appeared in EastEnders in 2006 as Linda Clarke, the mother of Jane Collins. In the same year, she appeared in Doctors as Barbara Cross. In 2008 she appeared in Dictioary Corner on Countdown.