Una Stubbs

As a 16-year-old, in 1953, she danced in a Folies Bergère-style musical revue, "Pardon My French", at the Prince of Wales Theatre, alongside Frankie Howerd and the pianist Winifred Atwell. She first appeared on television as one of the Dougie Squires Dancers on the British television music show Cool for Cats (ITV) in 1956. She also appeared as a dancer at the London Palladium. She referred to herself as the "Rowntree's Chocolate Girl", when describing a visit she made to the Rowntree's factory in York (where unknown to her, her grandfather had worked). In 1963 she joined the cast of new charades-based gameshow ''Don't Say a Word (ITV), a forerunner of Give Us a Clue''. She also appeared in the short-lived sitcom Till Death... (1981), again playing Rita. She played Rita a third time in a few episodes of the BBC sitcom In Sickness and in Health (1985–1992). During 1970–71, Stubbs teamed again with Cliff Richard to appear each week on his BBC1 TV series, ''It's Cliff Richard!'' Stubbs featured in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Anniversary" in 1979. From 1979 to 1981, she played Aunt Sally in the ITV children's series Worzel Gummidge opposite Jon Pertwee and Barbara Windsor, and was for several years a team captain in the weekly game show Give Us a Clue in the 1980s, reuniting her with Lionel Blair, the other team captain. Her other theatre credits included La Cage Aux Folles at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal, Bath and Old Vic and The Family Reunion at the Donmar Warehouse. She was in the original cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the National Theatre in 2012. In 2015 she co-presented The Big Painting Challenge on BBC One alongside Richard Bacon. ==Personal life==

Stubbs was born in 1937 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Angela K. Rawlinson and Clarence Reginald Stubbs. She grew up in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and was sent to La Roche dancing school in Slough by her mother. She was married to the actor Peter Gilmore from 1958 to 1969: they adopted a son, Jason. After their divorce in 1969, she married actor Nicky Henson. They divorced in 1975 but remained good friends. She and Henson had two children: composer Christian Henson (born 25 December 1971), and musician-composer Joe Henson (born 18 September 1973). For many years, Stubbs sketched vignettes of characters around London, and held exhibitions of these near her London home. On several occasions, paintings by Stubbs, which she will have submitted anonymously, were exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, most recently in 2020. Stubbs had known her Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch since he was four years old, as she had worked with his mother, Wanda Ventham. Stubbs was the subject of an episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 24 July 2013. It discussed several of her ancestors, including her great-grandfather Sir Ebenezer Howard, who was the founder of the garden city movement, and was the driving force in the design and creation of the first garden cities, Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City, situated in Hertfordshire. After several months of ill health, Stubbs died at her home in Edinburgh on 12 August 2021, at the age of 84. ==Filmography==

Film Television Audio dramas Theatre ==References==