Patricia Hayes

Patricia Lawlor Hayes (22 December 1909 – 19 September 1998) was an English character actress. She is best known for playing the titular Edna in the Play for Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.

Early life Patricia Lawlor Hayes was born in Streatham, London, the daughter of George Frederick Hayes and Florence Alice Hayes. Her father was a clerk in the civil service and her mother was a schoolmistress. As a child, Hayes attended the Sacred Heart High School, Hammersmith.

Career Hayes attended RADA, graduating in 1928. She spent the next 10 years in repertory theatre.

She was featured in many radio and television comedy shows between 1940 and 1996, including Hancock's Half Hour, Ray's a Laugh, The Arthur Askey Show, The Benny Hill Show, Bootsie and Snudge, Hugh and I and Till Death Us Do Part. She played the part of Henry Bones in the BBC Children's Hour radio programme Norman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives from 1943 to 1965.

Hayes was cast in supporting roles for films including The Bargee (1964), The NeverEnding Story (1984), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and was also featured as Fin Raziel in the Ron Howard film Willow (1988).

Her most substantial television appearance was in the title role of Edna, the Inebriate Woman (Play for Today, 1971) for which she won a BAFTA award. She provided the character voice for comedy puppet performances for television programmes such as Gran (Woodland Animations, 1982).

In April 1975, Hayes was interviewed by Roy Plomley for Desert Island Discs. A sizeable, but incomplete, extract is available to listen to and download via the programme's website on the BBC.

In 1977, she appeared on the BBC's long running TV variety show The Good Old Days; she had been an early member of the Players' Theatre in London, an old time music hall club, from the 1950s onwards.

In 1978, Hayes was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Rosalina in Filumena at The National Theatre.

In 1985, she starred in the title role of the TV play Mrs Capper's Birthday by Noël Coward.

In 1989, she appeared with her son Richard O'Callaghan in the Boon episode "The Rise of Fall of the Bowman Empire", in which they played mother and son, Elsepth and Cecil Bowman respectively.

Hayes played Miss. Willow, in one episode of the 1991 radio show The Secret Life of Rosewood Avenue.

Personal life

She was the mother of British actor Richard O'Callaghan (born Richard Brooke) by her marriage to Valentine Brooke, whom she divorced. She also had a daughter, Gemma Brooke, born in 1948. She never remarried. She was formerly the head of the British Catholic Stage Guild, which her son later chaired.

She was awarded an OBE in 1987. She is buried at the Watts Cemetery Chapel, Compton, Surrey.

Television roles

Selected filmography

Broken Blossoms (1936) – Minor role (uncredited) Went the Day Well? (1942) – Daisy When We Are Married (1943) – Ruby Birtle The Dummy Talks (1943) – (uncredited) Hotel Reserve (1944) – Woman Candles at Nine (1944) – Gewndolyn – Maid Great Day (1945) – Mrs. Beadle The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) – Phoebe To the Public Danger (1948) – Postmistress Poet's Pub (1949) – Mrs. Lott (uncredited) La Rosa di Bagdad (1949) – Amin (English version, voice) Skimpy in the Navy (1949) – (uncredited) The Enforcer (1951) – Teenager (uncredited) The Love Match (1955) – Emma Binns The Battle of the Sexes (1960) – Jeannie Macdougall Reach for Glory (1962) – Mrs. Freeman Kill or Cure (1962) – Lily – Waitress The Sicilians (1963) – Plane passenger It's All Over Town (1964) – Charlady Saturday Night Out (1964) – Edie's Mother The Bargee (1964) – Onlooker (uncredited) A Ghost of a Chance (1967, Children's Film Foundation) – Miss Woollie The Terrornauts (1967) – Mrs. Jones Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) – Grandma Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) – Miss Honeybun (uncredited) Carry On Again Doctor (1969) – Mrs. Beasley Fragment of Fear (1970) – Mrs. Baird Raising the Roof (1972) – Aunt Maud Super Bitch (1973) – Mamma the Turk Love Thy Neighbour (1973) – Annie Booth The Best of Benny Hill (1974) – Interviewer ('Words of Comfort') / Marie Quaint Danger on Dartmoor (1980) – Mrs. Green Cymbeline (1982) – Soothsayer The NeverEnding Story (1984) – Urgl Little Dorrit (1987) – Affery Willow (1988) – Fin Raziel A Fish Called Wanda (1988) – Mrs. Coady War Requiem (1989) – Mother The Fool (1990) – The Dowager The House of Bernarda Alba (1991) – Maria Josefa Blue Ice (1992) – Old Woman The Steal (1995) – Mrs. Fawkes Crime and Punishment (2002) – Alyonna Ivanovna, old pawnbroker (final film role; released posthumously)