Kathy Staff

Acting

Kathy Staff

Born — Died

1928-07-12 — 2008-12-13

Place of birth

Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

30 titles

Kathy Staff was an English actress known for her work on British television. She is best known for her portrayal of Nora Batty on Last of the Summer Wine, the longest running sitcom in the world.

Known for

Coronation Street poster
5.3

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

Coronation Street

1960

Crossroads poster
5.5

Crossroads is a British television soap opera set in a fictional motel near Birmingham, England. Created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, the commercial ITV network originally broadcast the series between 1964 and 1988. Produced by ATV and later by Central it became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. The series was revived in a glossier version by Carlton Television in 2001, but was again cancelled in 2003. The original theme tune was composed by Tony Hatch, and notably covered by Paul McCartney & Wings on their 1975 album Venus and Mars. A new version, which was first aired in 1987 when the series was relaunched as Crossroads, Kings Oak, was composed by Raf Ravenscroft and Max Early.

Crossroads

1964

Last of the Summer Wine poster
7.2

Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.

Last of the Summer Wine

1973

The Paul O'Grady Show poster
5.1

The Paul O'Grady Show is a British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4, where the show was produced by Olga TV. The programme is a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances, and occasionally viewer competitions.

The Paul O'Grady Show

2004

Blankety Blank poster
5.2

Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1979 Australian game show Blankety Blanks. The British version ran from 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 on BBC One, hosted first by Terry Wogan and later by Les Dawson. Regular members of the celebrity panel on this version included Kenny Everett, Lorraine Chase, Gareth Hunt, Gary Davies, and Cheryl Baker. A revival fronted by Lily Savage was produced by the BBC from 26 December 1997 to 28 December 1999, followed by ITV from 7 January 2001 to 10 August 2002. This version was produced by Grundy, then Thames.

Blankety Blank

1979

The Paul Daniels Magic Show poster
7.7

A British magic show and variety show that aired on BBC1 from 9 June 1979 to 18 June 1994. Daniels' assistant throughout the series was Debbie McGee, whom he married in 1988. At its peak in the 1980s, the show regularly attracted viewing figures of 15 million and was sold to 43 countries.

The Paul Daniels Magic Show

1979

Film credits

1980s · 8 titles

Separate Tables poster
6.6

Two one-act plays explore love and loneliness. In "Table by the Window" an aging fashion model contrives a reunion with her ex-husband, a politician ruined by scandal, and their passion is rekindled. In "Table Number Seven" a meek woman harbors a secret love for a man accused of fraud and sex offenses, forcing her to take a stand for the first time in her life.

Separate Tables

1983

Last of the Summer Wine: Getting Sam Home poster
8.0

Three old chums agree to take the ailing Sam on one last trip to see his flousy girl-friend, Lily Bless Her, in the middle of the night.

Last of the Summer Wine: Getting Sam Home

1983

The Dresser poster
6.8

In a touring Shakespearean theater group, a backstage hand - the dresser - is devoted to the brilliant but tyrannical head of the company. He struggles to support the deteriorating star as the company struggles to carry on during the London Blitz. The pathos of his backstage efforts rival the pathos in the story of Lear and the Fool that is being presented on-stage, as the situation comes to a crisis.

The Dresser

1983

Camille poster
5.5

Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.

Camille

1984

Last of the Summer Wine: Big Day at Dream Acres poster
NR

There's a big fête approaching at Dream Acres. Compo, Clegg and Seymour happen upon a wiley transient, who persuades them to help him rescue his childhood donkey from a field. Soon, the tramp's plan of fixing the fête 'donkey derby' is revealed.

Last of the Summer Wine: Big Day at Dream Acres

1987

Little Dorrit poster
6.4

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

Little Dorrit

1987

Mr. H Is Late poster
7.0

A team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.

Mr. H Is Late

1988

Last of the Summer Wine: Uncle of the Bride poster
NR

In the second TV movie outing for Roy Clarke's beloved characters, Wesley and Edie's daughter Glenda is getting married to hapless Barry, and Clegg and Compo make a new friend in Edie's brother Seymour. They are soon roped in to wedding preparations, which go about as well as could be expected...

Last of the Summer Wine: Uncle of the Bride

1986

1960s · 3 titles

Series credits

Coronation Street poster
5.3

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

Coronation Street

1960

Coronation Street poster
5.3

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

Coronation Street

1960

Coronation Street poster
5.3

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

Coronation Street

1960

Crossroads poster
5.5

Crossroads is a British television soap opera set in a fictional motel near Birmingham, England. Created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, the commercial ITV network originally broadcast the series between 1964 and 1988. Produced by ATV and later by Central it became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. The series was revived in a glossier version by Carlton Television in 2001, but was again cancelled in 2003. The original theme tune was composed by Tony Hatch, and notably covered by Paul McCartney & Wings on their 1975 album Venus and Mars. A new version, which was first aired in 1987 when the series was relaunched as Crossroads, Kings Oak, was composed by Raf Ravenscroft and Max Early.

Crossroads

1964

Last of the Summer Wine poster
7.2

Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.

Last of the Summer Wine

1973

The Paul O'Grady Show poster
5.1

The Paul O'Grady Show is a British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4, where the show was produced by Olga TV. The programme is a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances, and occasionally viewer competitions.

The Paul O'Grady Show

2004

Blankety Blank poster
5.2

Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1979 Australian game show Blankety Blanks. The British version ran from 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 on BBC One, hosted first by Terry Wogan and later by Les Dawson. Regular members of the celebrity panel on this version included Kenny Everett, Lorraine Chase, Gareth Hunt, Gary Davies, and Cheryl Baker. A revival fronted by Lily Savage was produced by the BBC from 26 December 1997 to 28 December 1999, followed by ITV from 7 January 2001 to 10 August 2002. This version was produced by Grundy, then Thames.

Blankety Blank

1979

The Paul Daniels Magic Show poster
7.7

A British magic show and variety show that aired on BBC1 from 9 June 1979 to 18 June 1994. Daniels' assistant throughout the series was Debbie McGee, whom he married in 1988. At its peak in the 1980s, the show regularly attracted viewing figures of 15 million and was sold to 43 countries.

The Paul Daniels Magic Show

1979

Open All Hours poster
7.9

Open All Hours is a British television sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke, starring Ronnie Barker as penny-pinching corner-shopkeeper Albert Arkwright, and David Jason as his nephew and assistant Granville. The programme originated as a 1973 episode of Barker’s comedy anthology Seven of One, and later ran for 26 episodes; the first series broadcast on BBC2, the remaining three series broadcast on BBC1.

Open All Hours

1976

No artwork available
NR

Castle Haven was a British soap opera, set around the residents of two Victorian seaside houses that had been converted into a series of flats and bedsits. It was first broadcast on 4 April 1969, but cancelled just under a year later on 26 March 1970 100 episodes were produced, but it is believed that only fifteen minutes of the series is still in existence; the rest were wiped after transmission, as per the (then commonplace) procedure of wiping videotape.

Castle Haven

1969

Queenie's Castle poster
6.8

The lives and, often illegal, activities of the residents of a tower block in early 1970s Leeds, West Yorkshire, with the brassy matriarch, Queenie Shepherd, ruling the roost over her neighbours.

Queenie's Castle

1970

No artwork available
7.5

No Frills was a television sitcom broadcast on BBC1 in 1988, and consisted of 7 episodes. It starred Kathy Staff as Molly Bickerstaff, a recently widowed woman who moves from Oldham to live in London with her divorced daughter Kate and gothic granddaughter Suzy.

No Frills

1988

Dawson and Friends poster
7.0

Four hour-long comedy specials with a variety of sketches, songs and stand-up routines.

Dawson and Friends

1977

Dawson's Weekly poster
7.0

Les Dawson puts his innate comic ability to excellent use as the hapless protagonist in this series of comedy plays made by ITV company Yorkshire Television. The series is written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. Supporting actors include Roy Barraclough and a wealth of special guests.

Dawson's Weekly

1975