Brigit Forsyth (28 July 1940 – 1 December 2023) was a Scottish actress, best known for her roles as Thelma Ferris in the BBC comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Helen Yeldham in the ITV drama Boon.

From 2013 to 2019, Forsyth appeared in the BBC comedy Still Open All Hours.

Early life

Forsyth was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. After leaving St George's School for Girls in Edinburgh, Forsyth trained as a secretary before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she won the Emile Littler Award.

Career

Forsyth's career began with the Roald Dahl-scripted The Night Digger (1971), playing a district nurse. Her film work also included a version of The Likely Lads (1976) as Thelma Ferris.

Forsyth played the cello from the age of nine, but abandoned it once she went to drama school; her ability was employed when, in 2004, she was cast in the lead role in Cello and the Nightingale, a play about internationally known cellist Beatrice Harrison that premiered at York Theatre Royal and in Killing Time (2019), an off-Broadway production in which she played the instrument and wrote the music.

Forsyth's best-known television work was Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? as Thelma Chambers / Thelma Ferris (1972–74). She also appeared in The Glamour Girls (1980-82) as Veronica Haslett; Tom, Dick and Harriet (1983) as Harriet Maddison, The Practice as Dr. Judith Vincent (1986), Sharon and Elsie as Elsie Beecroft (1984–85), Playing the Field (BBC1, 1998) as Francine Pratt, and Boon (ITV, 1989) as Helen Yeldham. She guest-starred in a number of other television shows such as The Bill , Doctor Who, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Coronation Street.

In 2002, Forsyth was the subject of This Is Your Life when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at BBC Broadcasting House. Forsyth appeared in the 2013 Christmas special of Still Open All Hours and returned for a full series on 26 December 2014 as Madge, sister of Maggie Ollerenshaw's character Mavis.

In 2013, Forsyth appeared as Mrs. Jennings in Helen Edmundson's BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and as the recurring character of Pearl in Ed Reardon's Week.

Her stage work included Calendar Girls in 2008 and Alan Bennett's People in 2013. She had previously appeared in a Radio 4 production of Bennett's Single Spies in which she played the part of Coral Browne. In 2015, she appeared in Now This is Not the End at the Arcola Theatre in London.

Personal life and death

Between 1975 and his death in 2006, Forsyth was married to television director Brian Mills.[1]

Forsyth died on 1 December 2023, aged 83.