Ann Beach

• Name — Ann Beach • Birth Name — Ann Beach • Born — 7 June 1938 • Birthplace — Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England • Died — 9 March 2017 • Place of death — Haringey, Greater London, England • Other Names — Ann Coleman • Education — Royal Academy of Dramatic Art • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1957–2013 • Television — Fresh Fields (1984–1986) • Children — * Charlotte Coleman • Lisa Coleman • Relatives — Albert Beach (paternal grandfather)

Ann Beach was born on 7 June 1938 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, the elder daughter of Claude Ripley Beach, a grocer, and his wife, Rebecca (née Startup). She had a younger sister. Her paternal grandfather, Albert Beach, served as the mayor of Wolverhampton. The family later relocated to Cardiff, Wales, where they opened an ice-cream parlour. Showing early musical talent as a vocalist, Beach joined the renowned Snowflakes children's choir, which won the inaugural competition at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in 1947. While attending Cardiff High School for Girls, her teachers noted her immense promise as a singer. She received significant personal encouragement from Rae Jenkins, the principal conductor of the BBC Welsh Orchestra, who believed she possessed the talent to pursue a professional career as an opera singer.

Choosing drama over opera, Beach won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and moved to London alone aged 16, taking up lodgings in Shepherds Hill, Highgate. She graduated in 1957, winning the prestigious Anmer Hall Memorial Prize. Beach made her professional stage debut in 1957 at the Streatham Hill Theatre, appearing as Paquerette in a touring production of Georges Feydeau's farce L'Hôtel du libre échange alongside Frankie Howerd. The following year, she made her West End debut at the Apollo Theatre playing the title role in Emlyn Williams's Beth, portraying a 16-year-old with a mental age of eight. Her performance earned critical praise from The Stage, which labelled her "an outstandingly good actress with a promise for the future."

In 1959, Beach joined Joan Littlewood's nascent Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She quickly became a stalwart of the company, mixing creative chaos with sharp comedic timing. Her early roles with Littlewood included Young Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, Rosey in the premiere of Lionel Bart's musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, and Miss Gilchrist in Brendan Behan's play The Hostage, the latter of which successfully transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre. In 1960, she starred at the Cambridge Theatre as the orange-eating Barbara opposite Albert Finney in Billy Liar. Beach balanced her time at Stratford East with work at the Royal Court Theatre, relishing the high-minded rigour of the latter. Her Royal Court appearances included Max Frisch's play The Fire Raisers with Colin Blakely and James Booth, and John Osborne's double-bill of plays, Plays for England (1961), directed by Lindsay Anderson. In 1962, she performed in Osborne's Under Plain Cover, directed by Jonathan Miller. She returned to Stratford East in 1963 to join the ensemble of the seminal satirical musical Oh! What a Lovely War. That same year, she made her debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing as Hermione in Peter Hall's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1964, she returned to the Royal Court to play Shirley, the pregnant secretary and mistress to Nicol Williamson's loathsome lawyer Bill Maitland, in Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence, directed by Anthony Page. The production subsequently transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre. In 1966, she shared the stage with Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford at the Chichester Festival Theatre in a revival of The Clandestine Marriage.

Though sometimes considered underused in musical theatre, her powerful singing voice secured her several notable West End musical roles. She played Hortense in a 1967 revival of Sandy Wilson's musical The Boy Friend at the Comedy Theatre, directed by Wilson himself. In 1969, she starred opposite Hollywood icon Ginger Rogers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the musical Mame. Playing the role of Agnes Gooch, another pregnant secretary, Beach stopped the show nightly with her rendition of "Gooch's Song," showcasing her operatic high notes. In 1975, she returned to Stratford East for the musical Nickleby and Me. In 1980, she played the eccentric Broadway zany Letitia Primrose alongside Keith Michell and Julia McKenzie in On the Twentieth Century at Her Majesty's Theatre. Later stage roles included Peter Gibbs's Selling the Sizzle (Hampstead Theatre, 1986) and the pantomime Cinderella (Cliffs Pavilion in Southend, 1987).

As theatre opportunities grew scarcer in her later career, Beach successfully transitioned into voice coaching and worked as a drama teacher at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. In private life, friends and colleagues frequently recalled her party trick: playing Frédéric Chopin's piece Minute Waltz on the piano while singing frantic, breathless self-penned lyrics.

On 30 July 1966, Beach married the Canadian television producer Francis Coleman at the Hampstead Register Office. The couple had two daughters, Charlotte Coleman and Lisa Coleman, both of whom entered the acting profession. Charlotte, who achieved mainstream recognition for her role in Four Weddings and a Funeral, died from an asthma attack in November 2001. Her husband died in 2008. Beach died on 9 March 2017 in Haringey, Greater London. She was 78.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes — Ref. References • 1957 — Play of the Week — Maud Riordan — Episode: "The Grass Harp" • 1958, 1960, 1971, 1973 — Armchair Theatre — Elaine Morris, Penelope, Mrs. Drayton — 4 episodes • 1960 — The City of the Dead — Lottie • 1960 — Theatre Night — Barbara — Episode: "Billy Liar" • 1961 — On the Fiddle — Iris • 1961 — Nothing Barred — Girlfriend Who Drops Through Open Manhole — Uncredited • 1961 — The Rag Trade — Brenda — 9 episodes • 1961–1962 — BBC Sunday-Night Play — Miss Chatham, Thelma — 2 episodes • 1962 — The Fast Lady — Miss Timpkins • 1963 — Tempo — Herself — Episode: "Lions Led by Donkeys" • 1963–1964 — Festival — Saunders, Maria — 2 episodes • 1965 — Off Beat... — Actress — 2 episodes • 1966 — The World of Wooster — Parlourmaid — Episode: "Jeeves and the Clustering Round Young Bingo" • 1966 — Hotel Paradiso — Victoire • 1966, 1971, 1977 — Play of the Month — Gwen, Anna Vyroubova, Violet, Mrs. Dainty Fidget — 4 episodes • 1967 — Half Hour Story — Jennifer — Episode: "The 45th Unmarried Mother" • 1968 — Sebastian — Pamela • 1969 — Jackanory — Storyteller — 5 episodes • 1969–1970 — The Wednesday Play — Blodwen Wilderness, Music Hall Artiste — 2 episodes • 1970 — Steptoe and Son — Daphne — Episode: "Steptoe and Son - and Son!" • 1970 — The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer — Receptionist • 1971 — For the Love of Ada — Alice Bingley — Episode: "The Journey" • 1971 — Elephant's Eggs in a Rhubarb Tree — Various roles — 6 episodes • 1971 — Under Milk Wood — Polly Garter • 1971 — The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes — Mary Grandard — Episode: "The Woman in the Big Hat" • 1971 — Shirley's World — Actress — Episode: "The Rally" • 1972 — The Man Outside — Maudlin — Episode: "A Persistent Coffin" • 1972, 1980 — Play for Today — Valerie, Shirley Ritchie, Morag — 3 episodes • 1973 — Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width — Bridie • 1973 — Song at Twilight — Shirley Ritchie • 1973 — Seven of One — Doris — Episode: "My Old Man" • 1974 — Perils of Pendragon — Maudlin — 2 episodes • 1974 — Omnibus — Queen Victoria — Episode: "Crystal Palace-The Great Glass Hive" • 1974 — Masquerade — Freda — Episode: "Service Not Included" • 1974 — Late Night Drama — Diane — Episode: "You Don't Remember!" • 1975 — Ten from the Twenties — Jehane — Episode: "The Orsini Emeralds" • 1975 — Dawson's Weekly — Mrs. Ffoulkes — Episode: "The Clerical Error" • 1975 — Shades of Greene — Miss Sanderson — Episode: "Special Duties" • 1976 — Bouquet of Barbed Wire — Monica — 2 episodes • 1976 — Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd — Clara • 1976 — The Government Inspector — Mayor's wife — Episode: "Bribery and Corruption" • 1976 — James and the Giant Peach — Aunt Sponge • 1977 — Rising Damp — Mrs. Brent — Episode: " • 1977 — Fred Basset — Actress — Short film • 1977 — The Battle of Billy's Pond — Mrs. Bateson — Television film • 1978 — The Upchat Connection — Una — Episode: "Spring in Park Lane" • 1978 — BBC2 Play of the Week — Morag — Episode: "The Vanishing Army" • 1979 — Brecht and Co — Member of Brecht's company, Widow Begbick, Polly Peacham • 1979 — Diary of a Nobody — Sarah — 9 episodes • 1980 — The History of Mr. Polly — Mrs. Johnson — 2 episodes • 1980 — Tales of the Unexpected — Miss Unwin — Episode: "Georgy Porgy" • 1981 — Holding the Fort — Muriel — Episode: "Famous First Words" • 1981 — Only When I Laugh — Helen Roper-Jones — Episode: "Postman's Knock" • 1982 — Oliver Twist — Mrs. Sowerberry — Television film • 1983 — Salad Days — Timothy's Mother • 1983 — Nanny — Miss Alice Casson — Episode: "The Prodigy" • 1984–1986 — Fresh Fields — Sonia Barrett — 26 episodes • 1985 — Tandoori Nights — Nurse Peters — Episode: "Far from the Ganges" • 1986 — That Uncertain Feeling — Mrs. Davies — 4 episodes • 1987 — The Sooty Show — Detective Sergeant Sarah Snoop — Episode: "White Lies" • 1987 — Scene — Mother — Episode: "This Year's Model" • 1989–1990 — Brookside — Jane Harper — 6 episodes • 1990 — Home to Roost — Rita Higgs — Episode: "Return to Clagthorpe" • 1991 — King Ralph — Miranda's Mother • 1991 — French Fields — Sonia Barrett — Episode: "Hail and Farewell" • 1991, 1994 — Screen One — Mrs. Chubb, Mrs. Leveller — 2 episodes • 1992 — Land of Hope and Gloria — Freda — Episode: "Running Before Walking" • 1993 — Bookmark — Headmaster's wife — Episode: "Selected Exits" • 1994 — The Lifeboat — Phyllis Shore — 4 episodes • 1995 — The Bill — Mrs. Parker — Episode: "All in the Game" • 1995 — Stick with Me, Kid — Lorinda — Episode: "Man of a Couple Faces" • 1998 — Wycliffe — Mrs. Wimble — Episode: "Land's End" • 1999 — Notting Hill — William's Mother • 1999 — People Like Us — Actress — Episode: "The Photographer" • 2000 — Home Farm Twins — Dotty Miller — Episode: "Sam and AJ Save the Day" • 2001 — Peak Practice — Eunice Gould — Episode: "Flesh and Blood" • 2001–2002 — Treasure — Actress — 13 episodes • 2002 — Double Act — Gran — Television film • 2005 — Midsomer Murders — Sonia Hardwick — Episode: "Sauce for the Goose" • 2005 — Cold Blood — Lynn — Episode: "Cold Blood" • 2006 — Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures — The Deacon — Episode: "Night Thoughts" • 2007 — Foyle's War — Hilda Greenwood — Episode: "Bleak Midwinter" • 2007 — I Am Bob — Friendly Old Lady • 2007 — The History of Mr Polly — Mrs. Rumbold • 2008 — HolbyBlue — Annie — Episode: "Episode #2.3" • 2010 — Bad Night for the Blues — Madge — Short film • 2011 — The Afternoon Play — Alice — Episode: "Small Acts of Kindness" • 2011 — Pandora's Tower — Mavda • 2011 — Fast Freddie, The Widow and Me — Freddie's Grandma • 2011 — Lovers & Other Problems — Actress • 2012 — Monroe — June Daggert — Episode: "Episode #2.5" • 2012 — The Archers — Joyce Walters — 6 episodes • 2013 — One Chance — Elderly Woman

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