Tributes pour in as TV’s battleaxe Nora Batty dies
KATHY Staff, the actress who brought loveable battleaxe Nora Batty to life for fans of Last of the Summer Wine, has died aged 80.
The mother-of-two passed away at a hospice with her husband John at her side.
She had worked up until August, filming on the long-running BBC sitcom, but had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Last night friends and colleagues paid tribute to the “warm, generous woman” best known for the curlers, saggy tights and frosty manner of her most celebrated character.
Peter Sallis, who as Norman Clegg played alongside her since the first episode 36 years ago, said: “I’m terribly upset that she’s not with us.
“I don’t know whether we are going to do any more but if we do, she is going to be terribly missed.”
Alan Bell, the show’s producer, said her gentle personality meant she often needed prompting to bring out Nora’s tough edge.
“She would play a scene quite gently and I’d say ‘But Kathy, you’ve got to harden up, because that’s who we all love, the hard, tough Nora Batty’.
“And she said ‘Why can’t I be just soft and gentle at times?’ And I said ‘Maybe some time we will’.”
Kathy was born Minnie Higginbotham in the Dukinfield area of Manchester in July 1928 and made her stage debut while still a teenager.
She changed her name to Kathy Grant before marrying John Staff in 1951, using her married name for the stage.
Nora Batty – famously required to fend off advances from layabout Compo, played by the late Bill Owen – was an instant favourite.
Even though she played the character in 243 episodes, the actress was baffled by her popularity.
She once said: “I’m astonished that old battleaxe Nora’s become so popular. I don’t think she could have been more horrible if she’d tried. Perhaps it’s those wrinkled stockings and curlers that turn people on.”
Her 62-year career also brought roles in Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm, Crossroads and Open All Hours, with David Jason and Ronnie Barker, and the movie thriller Mary Reilly which also starred George Cole and Julia Roberts.
She continued to live in the Manchester area and as a devout Christian was a member of St Mark’s Church, Dukinfield, all her life.
Rev Alison Cox, its priest-in-charge, said: “We will miss her terribly. She was a very friendly and warm woman, faithful and generous.” Jana Bennett, who oversees BBC television output, said: “Kathy Staff’s portrayal of Nora Batty was a British institution and she was greatly loved by the audience.”
Her death leaves Sallis as one of the few original cast still alive.
Brian Wilde, who played pompous Foggy Dewhirst and led his pals Clegg and Compo in hare-brained adventures, died in March, aged 80.
Bill Owen, who starred as loveable welly-wearing rogue Compo for 28 years, passed away in 1999, while Dame Thora Hird – village gossip Edie Pegden – died in 2003.
