Acting
Topsy Jane
Born — Died
1938-12-02 — 2014-01-04
Place of birth
Erdington - Birmingham - England - UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
8 titles
opsy Jane (2 December 1938 – 4 January 2014) was a British actress of the 1960s. She was in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and was cast as Liz (the role eventually played by Julie Christie) in the 1963 film Billy Liar but was forced to pull out owing to mental health issues. She was born as Topsy Jane Legge in Erdington in Birmingham in 1938, the daughter of Anna Maud née Gumbrell (1907-2006) and Albert Harry Legge (1894-1961), a dairy-man and by 1939 a telephone engineer for the GPO. Her father was a committed Communist and later was to be a major influence in the political awakening of her husband, the British film and television producer and actor Tony Garnett. Topsy J…
Known for
4.0A UK anthology series of single plays from major playwrights old and new. It ran from 1955 to 1974, producing about five hundred ninety-minute episodes from Granada Television. Season 1 also incorporates the Plays from the 'H.M. Tennant Globe Theatre' series, some of which were incorporated and labelled in listings as official Play of the Week episodes and some of which were played in place of Play of the Week episodes in alternative ITV regions. All 8 plays have been incorporated into this entry for convenience.
ITV Play of the Week
1955
United! was a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1. The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United. The football scenes were filmed on the grounds of Stoke City with Jimmy Hill acting as a technical advisor, and the efforts to achieve authenticity saw the show being criticised by the then management of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who complained that the series was based on their team.
United!
1965
An anthology of single plays offering up adaptations of either of prominent stage plays or novels.
Festival
1963
6.8A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
Billy Liar
1963
7.2A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
1962
A man fights his estranged wife for custody of their son.
Crying Down the Lane
1962
Film credits
1960s · 4 titles
6.8A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
Billy Liar
1963
7.2A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
1962
6.2Eighteen-year-old Harry Jukes is literally holding a smoking gun in his hand. His lawyer thinks he did it, but his psychiatrist disagrees -- and sets out to prove she is right.
Mix Me a Person
1962
10.0Taking its title from Harold Macmillan's widely-reported Cape Town speech about the process of decolonisation in Africa, The Wind of Change showed the other side of the coin: the impact of colonial immigration at 'home'. The film deals with the 'colour problem' within the context of Teddy boy violence.
The Wind of Change
1961
Series credits
4.0A UK anthology series of single plays from major playwrights old and new. It ran from 1955 to 1974, producing about five hundred ninety-minute episodes from Granada Television. Season 1 also incorporates the Plays from the 'H.M. Tennant Globe Theatre' series, some of which were incorporated and labelled in listings as official Play of the Week episodes and some of which were played in place of Play of the Week episodes in alternative ITV regions. All 8 plays have been incorporated into this entry for convenience.
ITV Play of the Week
1955
United! was a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1. The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United. The football scenes were filmed on the grounds of Stoke City with Jimmy Hill acting as a technical advisor, and the efforts to achieve authenticity saw the show being criticised by the then management of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who complained that the series was based on their team.
United!
1965
An anthology of single plays offering up adaptations of either of prominent stage plays or novels.
Festival
1963
A man fights his estranged wife for custody of their son.
Crying Down the Lane
1962