Early career After playing small parts in many
amateur dramatic productions, Kettlewell began her career in
repertory theatre at the Little Theatre, Great Yarmouth; first with
Aurora Productions Limited and later with the Great Yarmouth Repertory Company. By the late 1950s, she had managed to secure small
West End roles. In 1959, she had her first film role in
Room at the Top. She also acted in
Norwegian for a
Scandinavian children's film.
TV and Radio breakthroughs In the 1960s, Kettlewell's television career unfolded and she worked alongside the likes of
Harry Worth,
Joan Sims and
Deryck Guyler. She is perhaps best known for her role in the early episodes of
All Gas and Gaiters, where she played Mrs Grace Pugh-Critchley, the
Dean's wife. In 1966, she had a small role in the seminal
Cathy Come Home. A specialist in landladies and mothers-in-law, she was equally at home with both adult and children's material. In the early 1970s, she played alongside the Scottish comedy double-act
Mike Hope and Albie Keen in BBC TV's
Hope and Keens Crazy House, later reprised as ''Hope and Keen's Crazy Bus''. Like many actors, she continued to work well into her eighties. In her obituary,
The Independent noted that "By her own admission ...Ruth Kettlewell often played battleaxes, but it kept her in regular work...for half a century, sometimes only in fleeting roles. A lifelong Christian, she even felt sympathy for those on the receiving end of her characters' stern actions." ==Later life==