Margaret Rose "Peggy" Mount OBE, (2 May 1915 – 13 November 2001) was an English actress of stage and screen. She was perhaps best known for playing battleaxe characters, though her real personality was said to have been far removed from such roles.^[3] She was also well known for her distinctive voice.^[4]

Early life[link]

Mount was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Her love of acting had begun with the dramatic society of the Wesleyan chapel which she attended in Essex.^[4] She first worked as a secretary and took lessons from a drama tutor, Phyllis Reader, in her spare time.^[4]

She progressed through amateur theatre and wartime concert party productions, and in 1944 played her first straight part, in Hindle Wakes at the Hippodrome, Keighley,^[4] before joining the Harry Hanson Court Players for three years, then working in repertory theatre in Colchester, Preston, Dundee, Wolverhampton and Liverpool.^[4]

Career[link]

Mount shot to fame in London's West End playing the battleaxe mother-in-law Emma Hornett in Sailor Beware in 1955, having originated the role at Worthing Rep. She made her film début in the screen version of Sailor Beware! a year later.^[3][5]

However, Peggy Mount is best known for her many television comedy programmes. In 1958 Mount appeared as a landlady in The Adventures Of Mr. Pastry before landing to her official first television role was in The Larkins the same year, an early ITV comedy series featuring David Kossoff and herself as a Cockney couple, Alf and Ada Larkins, and their family.^[3][4][6]

The same time as the show, Mount appeared in another sitcom called Winning Widows in 1961-62, opposite Avice Landon as two widows who both had three husbands each then becoming widows.

She followed that from 1966 to 1968 with George and the Dragon, alongside Sid James^[3] and John Le Mesurier. From 1971 to 1972 she starred in Lollipop Loves Mr Mole with Hugh Lloyd and Pat Coombs.^[7][8] Between 1977 and 1981 she then starred in the Yorkshire Television sitcom You’re Only Young Twice, as the forthright Flora Petty who often bullied her friend Cissie Lupin (played by Pat Coombs).^[5][7]

Her other films included The Naked Truth alongside Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers in 1957^[5] and Ladies Who Do alongside Harry H Corbett, Jon Pertwee and Robert Morley in 1963. She also played Mrs Bumble in the 1968 film of the musical Oliver!.^[4]

Stage work[link]

However, Mount's career flourished most on stage. In 1960 she went to London's Old Vic as the Nurse to Judi Dench's Juliet, also appearing there in the play All Things Bright and Beautiful.^[6] In the West End she was another dreadful battleaxe in J B Priestley's When We Are Married in 1970.^[4]

For the next four years she toured, notably as Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals.^[6] At Birmingham Rep in 1977 she was a memorable Mother Courage and appeared in the Ben Travers farces Plunder and Rookery Nook.^[4]

In the 1980s she worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company^[5] at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Barbican Centre, and made her final stage appearance in 1996 at the Chichester Festival Theatre in Uncle Vanya with Trevor Eve, Imogen Stubbs and Frances Barber.^[4]

Later years[link]

Mount later appeared on television in programmes such as Doctor Who (in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" in 1988),^[9]The Tomorrow People (in which she played the cameo role of Mrs Butterworth in the second episode of the 1994 story "The Monsoon Man") and Inspector Morse ("Fat Chance").^[5] Mount also appeared in the 1991 T-Bag Christmas special, "T-Bag's Christmas Turkey". She was awarded an OBE in 1995.^[4]

She appeared in several Radio Plays for the BBC. In 1985 Peggy performed as the medium Madame Arcati in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, on Radio 4.

In her later years she lost her sight and suffered a series of strokes, forcing her to retire.^[10] She died at Denville Hall, the actors' retirement home in North London.^[10] She never married and had no children.^[4][5]

Indie rock band Half Man Half Biscuit refer to Peggy in their song "I Love You Because (You Look Like Jim Reeves)", from the album Back in the DHSS.

Filmography[link]

• The Embezzler (1954)
• Sailor Beware! (1956)
• Dry Rot (1956)
• The Naked Truth (1957)
• Inn for Trouble (1960)
• Ladies Who Do (1963)
• One Way Pendulum (1964)
• Hotel Paradiso (1966)
• Finders Keepers (1966)
• Oliver! (1968)
• The Princess and the Goblin (1992)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Peggy Mount at the Internet Movie Database

Ladies Who Do 1963 British comedy film starring Peggy Mount, Robert Morley and Harry H. Corbett.

Cast[link]

• Peggy Mount as Mrs. Cragg
• Robert Morley as Colonel Whitforth
• Harry H. Corbett as James Ryder
• Miriam Karlin as Mrs. Higgins
• Avril Elgar as Emily Parish
• Dandy Nichols as Mrs. Merryweather
• Jon Pertwee as Sidney Tait
• Joan Benham as Miss Pinsent
• Ron Moody as Police Inspector
• Cardew Robinson as Police Driver
• Nigel Davenport as Mr. Strang
• Arthur Howard as Chauffeur
• John Laurie as Dr. MacGregor
• Graham Stark as Foreman
• Brian Rawlinson as Shop Steward
• Harry Fowler as Drill Operator
• Arthur Mullard as Mr. Merryweather
• Ed Devereaux as Mr. Gubbins
• Marianne Stone as Mrs. Gubbins
• Carol White as Sandra
• Barbara Mitchell as Rose
• Ernest Clark as Stockbroker

Plot summary[link]

Mrs. Cragg (Peggy Mount) works as a part-time domestic for retired Colonel Whitforth (Robert Morley) and as a cleaner at an office block in London. It is whilst doing her city cleaning that she retrieves a half smoked cigar as a gift for the Colonel and unwittingly wraps it in a scrap of paper discarded by a property financier named James Ryder (Harry H. Corbett).

On receiving his cigar, the Colonel discovers that the scrap of paper actually contains details of a city takeover bid and unscrupulously uses this insider information to make £5000 on the stock market, which he shares with Mrs Cragg. This new-found wealth prompts the pair, together with three other ‘chars’ who are Mrs Cragg's neighbours in Pitt Street, to form the company 'Ladezudu': a speculation syndicate headed by Whitforth with the ladies providing insider information collected from bins at their respective offices. All is going well until an ill-timed investment in Irish pigs wipes out all their capital as swine fever kills their stock.

It is then that Mrs Cragg discovers that Ryder is planning the demolition and redevelopment of Pitt Street. As the bulldozers arrive and no assets to assist them, can the 'ladies who do' save their street and take on the city executives single handly?

DVD release[link]

Ladies Who Do was released on DVD in the UK on 24 March 2008.

External links[link]

• Ladies Who Do at the Internet Movie Database

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