Pat Coombs

158
Pat Coombs bigraphy, stories - Music

Pat Coombs : biography

27 August 1926 – 25 May 2002

Patricia Doreen "Pat" Coombs (27 August 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an English actress. Coombs specialised in the portrayal of the eternal downtrodden female – comically under the thumb of stronger personalities. She was known for many roles on radio, film and television sitcoms. She died aged 75 from complications arising from emphysema at Denville Hall actors’ home, Northwood."", Evening Standard, last accessed on 15 February 2007

Personal life

Coombs never married. She has said she came close to it twice, but was not sure enough to proceed. She once remarked: "I’ve never been wildly ambitious; I think if I’d been married, my career would have gone out of the window.""", The Telegraph, last accessed on 15 February 2007

Illness and death

Coombs was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 1995, and became an active campaigner for the National Osteoporosis Society. Her Christmas appeal letter raised £100,000 for the charity’s research.

She had just completed a role for Radio 4 alongside June Whitfield in Like They’ve Never Been Gone when she died, aged 75, on 25 May 2002 from emphysema in Denville Hall actors’ home, a west London nursing home to which she had moved to be close to her friend Peggy Mount, who had died six months earlier.

Early life

Born in Camberwell, South London, Coombs was one of three children; her father worked in insurance for the Employers’ Liability, the forerunner of Commercial Union.

Coombs attended the County School for Girls in Beckenham, Kent. After leaving school she began her working life as a student kindergarten teacher before her keenness for acting prompted her to take drama lessons during the Second World War with her friend and neighbour Vivien Merchant."", The Guardian, last accessed on 15 February 2007 At the age of 19, she won a scholarship to train as an actress at Lamda, where she subsequently taught dialect."", The Independent, last accessed on 15 February 2007

Career

Radio

She first made her name in the post-war era of radio variety as ‘Nola’, the dim and put-upon daughter of Irene Handl in Arthur Askey’s Hello Playmates; their double-act had started as a guest spot on Bob Monkhouse’s show. Coombs also gained experience as a comedy stooge in radio shows alongside Ted Ray and Charlie Chester.

Television

An early television break came when she appeared with Tony Hancock in an episode of his series Hancock’s Half Hour (1957). She followed this with regular appearances in The Cyril Fletcher Show (1959) and later she became a regular performer in the 1963 series of The Dick Emery Show. She also starred in the sitcoms Barney is My Darling (1965–66) alongside Irene Handl and Wild, Wild Women (1969) alongside Barbara Windsor.

After a relatively unsuccessful partnership with Peggy Mount in the television series Lollipop Loves Mr Mole (ITV, 1971), the two found a better platform for their talents when they were reunited in Yorkshire TV’s You’re Only Young Twice (1977–1981), set in a home for the elderly; the two actresses were to become close friends.

During her long career, Pat made two memorable contributions to Dad’s Army. In 1970, she played Mrs Hall in the movie, and later in 1975, she played the dual part of Marie/the Clippie in the radio adaptation of A Soldier’s Farewell.

Her other television work included Beggar My Neighbour (1967), Cucumber Castle (1970), Don’t Drink the Water (1974–75), Up Pompeii! (1969), Till Death Us Do Part (1966–75) and its sequel In Sickness and in Health (1990, 1992), and The Lady is a Tramp (1983), in which she co-starred with Patricia Hayes in a series set among ‘down-and-outs’. Coombs was also the subject of This is Your Life in 1978 and appeared regularly as a guest on Noel Edmonds’s Saturday night entertainment show Noel’s House Party (1992–95) and on the game shows Blankety Blank and Celebrity Squares (1975–79), returning for its revival in 1993–94.