Charlotte Mitchell

Charlotte Mitchell (born Edna Winifred Mitchell; 23 July 1926 – 2 May 2012) was an English actress and poet.

In the 1950s she provided lyrics, sketches, and occasionally acted in revues on London's West End. She was especially successful in her ventures providing lyrics for Madeleine Dring in Airs on a Shoestring (1953), Pay the Piper (1954), and Fresh Airs (1956), all productions of Laurier Lister.[citation needed ]

She was once (allegedly) the girlfriend of Peter Sellers, and appeared in The Goon Show episodes Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1954) as Maid Marian and Tales of Montmartre (1956) as Seagoon's love interest, Fifi. Charlotte Mitchell was married to the actor Philip Guard,[citation needed ] from whom she separated in 1968, and was the mother of three children: actors Christopher Guard[citation needed ] and Dominic Guard[citation needed ] and animator and novelist Candy Guard. Charlotte lived in West London during the later part of her life and continued to be active as a poet.

She appeared on BBC Radio with Ian Carmichael in The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C. Potter. Carmichael played Gerald C. Potter, mystery writer, while she played Diana, his wife, who, under the pseudonym of Miss Magnolia Badminton, wrote romantic novels. She also played, on radio, the Dowager Duchess (Lord Peter Wimsey's mother) in the radio adaption of Strong Poison that starred Ian Carmichael as Wimsey, and the character of Kath Miller in the BBC Radio 2 daily serial Waggoners' Walk. On television, she played Amy Winthrop the housekeeper in The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972–74), and Monica Spencer in And Mother Makes Five.

Her poetry was published in collections such as Twelve Burnt Saucepans, Looking Round Dangerously, I Want to Go Home and Just in Case. These provided the basis of a series of popular programmes on BBC Radio 4 in which she read her own work. Her poetry is often requested and read on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please, and one of her poems was chosen by Judi Dench and Michael Williams in their joint BBC Radio 4 programme With Great Pleasure.[citation needed ]

Mitchell died in Chiswick, London, on 2 May 2012, aged 85, from pneumonia. She had previously battled breast cancer and myeloma.