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pride
of manchester -
hylda baker |
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"Hello, I dont think you've had the
pleasure of me yet!"
- Hylda
Baker |
Born
on 4th February 1908 in Farnworth, near Bolton, Hylda Baker was
educated at Plodder Lane Council School. She didn’t stay in
school for very long however because by the time she was 13 she
was already earning a mammoth £25 per week, as a headline
variety act.
Hylda Baker was very tiny at 4ft11inches
but had tremendous energy and she worked her way up the entertainment
ladder via the Music Halls, where she played a fast-talking gossip,
aided by her gormless on-stage ‘stooge’ Cynthia (always
played by a man). She developed a string of catch-phrases such as
‘She knows, you know’, “You big girl’s blouse’
and ‘Be soon’, and she became a master of the malapropism
and double entendre – such as “I can say that without
fear of contraception” and “You haven’t had the
pleasure of me yet”.
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In 1955 she made a
very successful appearance on TV’s ‘The Good Old Days’
and this took her on to greater heights, including
a couple of serious film parts in 1960. In both ‘Saturday
Night and Sunday Morning’ and ‘Up The Junction’,
Hylda Baker played a back-street abortionist.
She had previously starred in an early
BBC sitcom called ‘Be Soon’ but this had not been particularly
successful. She put the record straight in 1968 when the TV series
‘Nearest and Dearest’ became a huge hit, running for
seven series until 1973. Hylda’s character Nellie Pledge,
owner of a Pickled Onion factory, was ideally suited to her talents
and she was cast opposite the skilled comedian Jimmy Jewel.
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A
follow-up series ‘Not On Your Nelly’ was less successful
but by this stage Hylda Baker was already suffering from Alzheimer’s
Disease and on a downward spiral. She was struggling to remember
her lines (and unfortunately her stress and anxiety caused her to
alienate many of her friends).
But before she departed the scene
she had a remarkable swansong: At the age of 73 she made her final
TV appearance - on BBC TV’s ‘Top of the Pops’
– duetting (in black leather gear and blonde wig) with another
oldie, Cockney comedian Arthur Mullard. Their 1978 send-up of Olivia
Newton-John and John Travolta’s hit from Grease, ‘You’re
The One That I Want’, was a great success (reaching number
22 in the UK singles charts). The act earned her numerous bookings
on the gay circuit, however these soon dried up as her ill health
became more and more obvious.
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Hylda Baker sadly spent the last
few years of her life in a nursing home in Epsom, Surrey. She
died lonely and forgotten at the age of 81 on May 1st 1986. There
was hardly any media coverage of her death and less than 10 people
attended her funeral.
In 1997, Jean Fergusson (Marina
in 'Last of The Summer Wine') wrote and starred as Hylda in 'She
Knows, You Know!', a stage play about the tragic life of the Farnworth
favourite. Hylda would have been comforted to know that many years
after her passing, her unique talents are still appreciated and
her comedy is still seen regularly on UK television.
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contact us if you'd like
to write a more detailed biography of hylda baker | |
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check out this excellent
nearest & dearest website | |
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