Margaret Tyzack, who has died aged 79, was a versatile actress known for her classical stage roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and for her performances in television series such as The Forsyte Saga and I, Claudius.
It was the role of Winifred, sister of Soames Forsyte and besotted wife of the caddish Montague Dartie, in the BBC’s 26-part adaptation of John Galsworthy’s family saga, that made her a household name. The series, of which Tyzack was always immensely proud, was so popular that some vicars were said to have rescheduled Sunday evening services so that members of their congregation would not have to choose between God and the small screen.
Nonetheless, Tyzack considered herself to be a character actor and was always happiest in the theatre. She won an Olivier Award for playing the uncouth, booze-sodden Martha in a 1981 revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? On Broadway, Tyzack was nominated for a Tony award in 1983 as the Countess of Roussillon in Trevor Nunn’s RSC production of All’s Well That Ends Well. Her last stage appearance was in 2009 as Oenone, Helen Mirren’s nurse, in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Phèdre at the National Theatre.
Tyzack was born in Essex on September 9, 1931, the daughter of a sugar factory foreman. She was educated at St Angela’s Ursuline convent in Forest Gate, east London, and later claimed to have “drifted into acting” after a drama teacher at school spotted her potential.
“Really, I’m a refugee from the typing pool,” Tyzack said later. “That would have been the alternative. Or maybe selling something in Harrods.” She trained at Rada, where she was in the same class as Joan Collins, and won a prize for comedy.
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It was while in repertory in Chesterfield that she developed her soon famous audibility: “If you were warned for inaudibility on Wednesday and still couldn’t be heard on Thursday, you’d be sacked on Friday. You had to learn quickly,” she recalled.
For the rest of her career she preferred working in Victorian or Edwardian theatres — “that wonderful old horseshoe shape” — not only because “you always know you can be heard” but also because “the architects who built those theatres knew something that a lot of modern architects don’t”.
Tyzack was a modest, unassuming woman who liked to boast that she could go shopping without being recognised and remained unfazed by the glitz of award ceremonies. When she picked up the Critics’ Circle best actress award for her role as Mrs St Maugham in The Chalk Garden in 2008, she gave her fellow actors a lesson in how to accept by applying what she called “the three Gs: be grateful, gracious — and get off”.
— The Daily Telegraph
George Glenn
Squadron Leader George Glenn, who has died aged 90, led a daring solo attack on the German battlecruiser Gneisenau in Brest, France, that earned him a Distinguished Flying Cross, before completing 51 operations with the RAF’s Pathfinder Force for which he was awarded a second DFC.
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On Christmas Eve, 1941, Glenn flew a Hampden bomber across the English Channel in poor weather. As he approached the Gneisenau, a wing hit the cable of a tethered balloon, and Glenn just managed to retain control before heading for the target to drop his 2,000lb bomb. With the tailplane damaged by anti-aircraft fire the aircraft was almost uncontrollable, but Glenn got it back to England where he and his crew then attended a Christmas party.
— The Daily Telegraph