KATHY Staff is best known for her portrayal of Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine, the beloved sitcom set in West Yorkshire, but there is much more to her life and career.
Kathy was born Minnie Higginbottom, which would have served equally well as a comedic character’s name.
Minnie came into the world at 243 Astley Street, Dukinfield, a town on the south bank of the Tame just half-a-dozen miles from Manchester, part of Cheshire, before joining Greater Manchester in 1974.
Her father was a clothing company manufacturer and mission church lay reader, her mother sang in a quartet, and she had a sister, Constance (Connie), who’d become an English teacher. Her schools were St Mark’s C of E Primary and Lakes Road Secondary, where she became head girl, although academia wasn’t really for her. She had wanted to become a ballet dancer as a youngster, however, her parents couldn’t afford the tuition fees. It’s a hard one to imagine if you have Nora Batty in your mind.
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Acting soon became her passion and from an early age she appeared in amateur productions.
Leaving school at 14, she began work as a short-hand typist and did clerical work in Ashton-under-Lyne.
When she began acting in 1946 aged 18, she changed her name to Katherine (or Kathryn) Brant, having never much liked Minnie Higginbottom.
The Brant name was the one she used for most of her early theatrical endeavours. She began acting professionally in 1949 with rep companies in Wales and Scotland, and met her future husband while performing in rep in Llanelli.
Kathy married schoolteacher John Staff (1928-2011) in St Mark’s, Dukinfield, in 1951, a union that would last well over half a century, until her death in 2008.
They set up home in Denton and had two children, one of whom, younger daughter Susan Jackson (following her marriage in 2002), became a vicar, one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of England.
Shortly after the birth of the children (Katherine in 1956, and Susan in 1959), the family moved to Dukinfield, to Crescent Close. Kathy adopted her married name as her new stage and screen persona and thereby became Kathy Staff to her future legion of TV fans.
She took a break to raise her family, although she did take work as an extra with Granada TV in the early-1960s, being paid £3 a day.
Her big TV break came in 1969 when she appeared as Lorna Everitt in Castle Haven, a short-lived soap with Sally James, who became a TV presenter, and Roy Barraclough, who starred in Corrie as publican Alec Gilroy.
It had been a chance encounter with an old colleague from rep days, Gerald Harper, that persuaded Kathy to have a go at TV work, a decision she wouldn’t regret.
Politically, Kathy confirmed in her autobiography that she was a Conservative and had once stood for the party in local elections, circa 1971, when a candidate by the name of ‘Ms. M. Staff’ tried to win the Central ward in the Municipal Borough of Dukinfield. She was unsuccessful in her attempt, finishing last out of three Conservatives, all of whom were bettered by Labour and Liberal candidates.
Meanwhile, Kathy’s acting career was transformed from 1973 when she appeared in the pilot episode of Last of the Summer Wine, and indeed spoke its very first line, her formidable character of Nora Batty becoming iconic for its irascibility.
She’d appear in the long-running saga until 2008, the year of her death, accumulating 245 episodes along the way. Set in Yorkshire, the series focussed on the larks of three elderly gents who refused to grow up with one of them, Compo, played by Bill Owen, having unlikely amorous designs on Nora, wrinkled stockings, pinny, hair curlers et al and for whom the moniker battle-axe ought to have been invented.
File photo dated 20/12/1989 of the cast of Last of the Summer Wine in the Christmas special. Back row (left to right): Ivy (Jane Freeman), Clegg (Peter Sallis), Compo (Bill Owen), Seymour (Michael Aldridge), Barry (Mike Grady) and Glenda (Sarah Thomas).
Following actor Bill Owen’s death in July 1999, Kathy left the show for a while and commented that things were not the same afterwards, although she did return in the end. She never had a stand-in so did her own stunts, including falling off a bicycle.
She also appeared in the soap Crossroads from 1978-84 and again over 2001-02, playing the role of cleaner Doris Luke.
Some viewers’ inability to tell fact and fiction was shown when Kathy received get well cards when her character, Doris, was ill (Kathy was away working on another project, hence her Crossroads character being indisposed for a while).
She made it into Coronation Street as Vera Hopkins (1973-75), appeared in Open All Hours (Mrs Blewett, 1976), and was also having fun on The Benny Hill Show. In 1984, Kathy Staff was honoured by being selected as a subject for This Is Your Life when she was surprised by the then host Eamonn Andrews while shopping in Harrods.
The guest list included comic actor Stan Stennett, Paul Henry (Benny in Crossroads), Susan Hanson (Benny’s foil, Miss Diane), Peter Sallis and Bill Owen from Last of the Summer Wine, Roy Barraclough, Carry On actress Barbara Windsor and Gerald Harper (Adamant Lives and Hadleigh). She appeared as a celebrity panellist on Blankety Blank when it was hosted by Birkenhead’s Lily Savage, or rather Paul O’Grady’s Lily Savage. Her listed TV roles extend to 10, with an appearance in Emmerdale (1975) when she played Winnie Purvis.
She was also an accomplished theatre actress, starring as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest at Birmingham Rep, and taking on Mrs Malaprop, the best-known character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals. She also appeared in a number of movies: A Kind of Loving (1962), The Family Way (1966), The Dresser (1983), Camille (1984), Little Dorrit (1988) and Mary Reilly (1996). She also appeared in her first panto in 1982 and became a mainstay of this particular circuit, appearing in no fewer than 18 pantos altogether. Kathy autobiography, My Story – Wrinkles and All, co-authored with Liz Barr, was published in 1997.
Kathy Staff died of a brain tumour in Ashton-under-Lyne on December 13, 2008, aged 80, and was laid to rest in her home town, in Dukinfield’s Crematorium and Cemetery, her funeral service having taken place at
St Mark’s where she was a lifelong member of the congregation, sang in the choir and is commemorated with a memorial screen. Her Christianity was sincere and committed. She signed the temperance pledge when she was just 14 and didn’t imbibe alcohol all her life; she also never smoked. Her grave recalls her as a ‘loving wife and mother’ but also the actress for: ‘the actress rests’.
A memorial service was held for her at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, on April 24, 2009. A blue plaque was unveiled at St Mark’s, Dukinfield, in March 2011 to celebrate Kathy’s life and achievements, the unveiling done by none other than her close friend and colleague Roy Barraclough.
Kathy Staff was a bit like Nora Batty and yet she wasn’t. They were both strong, working-class women from up north, but Kathy liked to take tea at the Ritz or pop into Liberty’s, which would have been a step or two beyond the battered old trout, as Kathy described Nora. She almost didn’t get the role as she turned up for the initial discussions dressed too elegantly. She was a good-natured, common sense, calm individual..
CHRONOLOGY
1928 – Birth of Minnie Higginbottom (July 12) in Dukinfield.
1946 – Begins acting and changes her name to Kathy Brant.
1949 – Takes up professional acting, appearing in rep in Scotland and Wales.
1951 – Marriage to schoolteacher John Staff in St Mary’s, Dukinfield.
1969 – Kathy’s big TV break as she appears as Lorna Everitt in Castle Haven.
1973 – Delivers the first line of Last of the Summer Wine as iconic Nora Batty.
1978 – Makes her first appearance in Crossroads playing cleaner Doris Luke.
1984 – Is surprised in Harrods by Eamonn Andrews for This Is Your Life.
2008 – Death of Kathy Staff (December 13) in Ashton-under-Lyne aged 80.