Josephine Tewson

Josephine Tewson
Born	26 February 1939 (1939-02-26) (age 70) Hampstead, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1963–present
Spouse(s)	Leonard Rossiter (1959–1961; divorced)

Josephine Tewson (born 26 February 1939) is an English comic actress best known for her role as Elizabeth in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and as Miss Davenport in the British television series, Last of the Summer Wine. Her father was a professional musician.

Tewson was born in Hampstead, London. Her father was a professional musician and after grammar school she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She was once married to the actor Leonard Rossiter, though they later divorced. She was a cousin of actor John Inman.

A regular comedy performer in sketches featuring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker on Frost on Sunday and Hark at Barker in 1970, she later appeared in Mostly Monkhouse, a BBC Radio Comedy programme with David Jason supporting Bob Monkhouse. She also appeared on the Charlie Drake show, Z Cars and Emergency Ward 10 in the 1960s. Tewson played Edna Hawkins (usually refered to as Mrs H by Shelley) in the first six series of the British sitcom Shelley. In 1988, she played Jane Travers in the sitcom Clarence, which was written by Ronnie Barker and was his last starring television role before his retirement.

More recently, she has appeared semi-regularly as Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine (written by Roy Clarke, who also wrote Keeping Up Appearances). She has also appeared in two episodes of the documentary series Comedy Connections, talking about her work in Keeping Up Appearances (2004) and opposite The Two Ronnies (2005).

Other television appearances were in an episode of Heartbeat in 2002 called "Closing The Book", which was part of the eleventh series. She also featured as a competition judge in 'Judgement Day', an episode in the mystery drama Midsomer Murders.

Television roles

External links

• Josephine Tewson at the Internet Movie Database