DANDY NICHOLS (Daisy Nichols). Born in Hammersmith, London, England, 1907. Divorced. Worked for 12 years as a secretary in a London factory, taking acting lessons; professional actor, from 1930s; participated in six-week tour with ENSA during World War II; film debut, 1947; played maids, housewives and other subservient roles for many years on both stage and screen, before her greatest success opposite Warren Mitchell, as Else in the long-running series Till Death Us Do Part. Died 6 February 1986.

TELEVISION SERIES

1966-73 Till Death Us Do Part
1971 The Trouble With You, Lillian
1985 In Sickness and in Health Films Hue and Cry
1947 Nicholas Nickleby
1947 Woman Hater
1948 Portrait from Life
1948 The Fallen Idol
1948 The Winslow Boy
1948 Here Come the Huggetts
1948 The History of Mr Polly
1948 Scott of the Antarctic
1948 Don't Ever Leave Me
1949 Now Barabbas was a Robber...
1949 Tony Draws a Horse
1950 Dance Hall
1950 The Clouded Yellow
1950 White Corridors
1951 The Holly and the Ivy
1952 The Happy Family/Mr Lord Says No
1952 Mother Riley Meets the Vampire/Vampire Over         London
1952 Emergency Call/Hundred Hour Hunt
1952 The Pickwick Papers
1952 Woman of Twilight/Twilight Women
1952 Street Corner/Both Sides of the Law
1953 The Wedding of Lili Marlene
1953 Meet Mr Lucifer
1953 The Intruder
1953 Time Is My Enemy
1954 The Crowded Sky
1954 Mad About Men
1954 Where There's a Will
1955 The Deep Blue Sea
1955 A Time to Kill
1955 Lost/Tears for Simon
1955 Not So Dusty
1956 The Feminine Touch/The Gentle Touch
1956 Yield to the Night/Blonde Sinner
1956 The Strange World of Planet X/Cosmic Monsters 1958 Carry On Sergeant
1958 A Cry from the Streets
1958 Don't Talk to Strange Men
1962 Ladies Who Do
1963 The Leather Boys
1963 Act of Murder
1964 Help!
1965 The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders
1965 The Knack... and How to Get It
1965 The Early Bird
1965 Doctor in Clover
1966 Georgy Girl
1966 How I Won the War
1967 Carry On Doctor
1968 Till Death Us Do Part
1968 The Bed Sitting Room
1969 First Love
1970 Home
1972 The Alf Garnett Saga
1972 O Lucky Man
1973 Confessions of a Window Cleaner
1974 Three for All
1974 Kate the Good Neighbour
1980 The Plague Dogs (voice only)
1982 Britannia Hospital 1982.

STAGE (selection)

The Clandestine Marriage; Plunder; Home.

 

See also Till Death Us Do Part

 

 

   

Dandy Nichols is remembered above all for one role only, that of the long-suffering Else, wife of the appalling Alf Garnett, in the long-running series Till Death Do Us Part and the rather milder follow-up In Sickness and In Health, both written by Johnny Speight.

The role of Else Garnett (or Ramsey as the family was called in the beginning) went first to Gretchen Franklin when a pilot episode of Till Death Do Us Part was made in 1965, but Nichols took over when the series proper got under way and she quickly proved the perfect foil to the bigoted and abusive Garnett, played by Warren Mitchell. The rapport between the two ensured the show's immediate, if controversial, success, and the programme was destined to attract top ratings for 10 years before a weary Nichols complained that she could work with Warren Mitchell no longer and she called it a day (in the series it was explained that she had left for Australia to visit her sister). She came back, however, as Else in the sequel, In Sickness and In Health, though by now confined to a wheelchair because of arthritis and with only months to live.

As Else, Alf Garnett's dimwitted "silly old moo" of a wife, Dandy Nichols repeatedly demonstrated the command of technique and timing that she had learned from her long apprenticeship in the theatre (she appeared, for instance, in the original Royal Court Theatre cast of David Storey's Home in 1970 and acted in the West End with the likes of John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson). She also appeared in some 50-odd films, which ranged from Carry on Doctor and Confessions of a Window Cleaner to Nicholas Nickleby and Scott of the Antarctic. Film directors cast her initially as cockney maids and char-ladies, but it was not long before her skills as a character actress were recognized and she was occasionally allowed to extend herself in more varied parts.

Born in Hammersmith, Dandy Nichols was quite at home with the East End locale of the Garnett series, and she proved inimitable in the character with which she became most closely identified. Deadpan in the face of Garnett's unforgivable verbal abuse, and resigned to her role as the target of much of her husband's frustration and invective, she could be by turns hilarious and pathetic and she quickly became a firm favourite of the British viewing public. Treasured memories of her performances included the carefully-managed moments in which she would bring a careering Alf Garnett to a sudden stop in mid-tirade with some artlessly innocent observation or other, apparently oblivious of the inevitable result that she would draw the full venom of her husband's ire upon herself. Else was a type that many people recognized from real life, and she provided some necessary warmth and pathos to contrast with the monstrous Alf's aggression and viciousness. Without Else, and in a changed climate under the Thatcher government, the later series faltered and failed to resonate with viewers as earlier episodes had done.

Success in the role of Else Garnett, though it came relatively late in her career, brought Nichols the opportunity to play both starring and supporting roles in many other classic television shows. In the sitcom The Trouble With You, Lillian, for instance, she was equally effective as Madge, teamed up with the redoubtable Patricia Hayes. Among the other classic series in which she appeared to acclaim were Emergency-Ward 10, Dixon of Dock Green, No Hiding Place, Mrs Thursday, and Bergerac. The critics also lavished praise on her performance in a television adaptation of the William Trevor play The General's Day, in which she starred opposite Alastair Sim.

-David Pickering