Hylda Baker
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| Hylda Baker | |
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 Hylda Baker (1966) |
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| Born | Hilda Baker 4 February 1905 Farnworth, Lancashire, England[1] |
| Died | 1 May 1986 (aged 81) Epsom, Surrey, England[2] |
| Occupation | Comedy actress |
| Years active | 1914-1978 |
Hylda Baker (4 February 1905 – 1 May 1986) was a British comedienne, actress and music hall star.
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[edit] Early life and career
Baker was born in Farnworth, near Bolton, Lancashire, the first of seven children. Her father, Harold Baker, was a painter and signwriter, who also worked part-time in the music halls as a comedian. At ten, Baker made her debut at the Opera House, Tunbridge Wells, and continued to tour as a single variety act—singing, dancing and performing impersonations. By 14, she had started writing, producing and performing her own shows. Her most famous stage act was as a gossip from the North of England, with a silent, sullen companion named "Big Cynthia", almost always played by a man in drag (and who was played last by Matthew Kelly).[3] Her act was full of malapropisms and her catchphrase, usually after an innuendo, was "She knows, y'know!"
It has been suggested by Kelly that Baker's exaggerated vocal delivery had its origins in the mee-mawing required of Lancashire cotton mill workers in the weaving sheds. Fellow comedienne Victoria Wood has described her comedic talent as "peculiarly Northern".[3]
[edit] Television career
Baker came to national attention in BBC television's The Good Old Days in 1955. This led to her television series, Be Soon (named after another of her catchphrases), in 1957 and a supporting part in the sitcom Our House in 1960, followed by her own sitcom, The Best of Friends, in 1963. She also appeared in films, including Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and the film version of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! (1968). Reisz had seen her performing her sketches at the Chiswick Empire theatre.
Baker's most famous role, alongside fellow Lancastrian Madge Hindle, was as Nellie Pledge in the Granada Television comedy series Nearest and Dearest (1968–73). Playing her brother Eli was the comedian Jimmy Jewel and the series was centred on their characters' love-hate relationship as they tried to run their small family business, Pledge's Purer Pickles. As they bickered onscreen and traded insults such as "knocked-kneed knackered old nosebag" and "big girl's blouse", the insults continued offscreen as the two disliked each other intensely and their arguments became showbiz legend.[3] A film version of the series was made by Hammer Films in 1972 (the same year she was celebrated in an episode of This Is Your Life). Later in the series, Baker began having trouble remembering her lines and had to rely on cue cards.[3]
Baker played a virtually identical role in the LWT comedy series Not On Your Nellie (1974–75). In this series she played Nellie Pickersgill, who moves to London from the North to run her ailing father's pub. However the series was short-lived and, by this time, Baker was again finding it difficult to remember her lines and was also refusing to attend rehearsals. After suing the production company for an on-set injury in which she broke her leg (after slipping on beer on the set), the series ended, as did her television acting career.
Baker recreated her variety act in an episode of the BBC series The Good Old Days in 1976.
In an unusual coda to her musical career, she teamed with Arthur Mullard in 1978 to record a comedy version of "You're The One That I Want" from the film Grease. Baker and Mullard, then aged 73 and 68, dressed in wigs and costumes similar to the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John characters from Grease and appeared on the BBC show Top of the Pops and the Granada Television music show for children Get It Together. The pair recorded an album of pop covers entilted Band On The Trot.[3]
Her final television appearance came the same year in an episode of the BBC arts documentary show Omnibus about female comedians, broadcast on 28 December 1978.
[edit] Personal life and death
Baker suffered two ectopic pregnancies which led in part to the breakdown of her marriage.[3]
Baker lived the life of a star, dressing in furs and keeping monkeys as pets. She annoyed her neighbours with loud parties at her Blackpool home. In her 70s she developed Alzheimer's disease and in 1981 she moved to Brinsworth House, the retirement home for performers, in Twickenham, London. In 1984, she moved to a psychiatric hospital in Epsom, Surrey, where she died two years later, aged 81, from bronchial pneumonia.[3]
[edit] Legacy
Actress Jean Fergusson, known for appearances in Last of the Summer Wine, wrote a biography and devised and starred in a tribute show, She Knows Y' Know!, at London's Vaudeville Theatre in 1997. The show won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 1998.
