Stella Tanner : long career in TV

I saw stella in fawlty towers the other night and thought i would view her acting CV - it's very impressive. I particularly remember her on Spike milligan's Q5 (etc.) and was surprise to see that she was in the rag trade, one of the first TV programmes that i can remember watching. If anybody knows more about her please fill in her biography.

Hi Marty - this isn't quite the information you require, but still a bit interesting. I saw Stella Tanner in Edgware (Middlesex)in the High Street, being helped by a close friend or relative (i.e: arm in arm) as she was very frail. Actually, this was about two-three years ago and she didn't look at all very well. It may be a temporary thing, but according to IMDb, she'd be in her mid-eighties now if indeed she is still alive. I remember her good work as one of Spike Milligan's stalwarts too, growing up in the seventies and think she was a good actress. I do hope she is well and would make it back to the screens again, but her protfolio here, shows she hasn't at least done TV for just over ten years now.

Hi Naseby

Many thanks for taking the time to leave a message on this thread. Hopefully Stella is stil with us and in better health now. I doubt whether we will see her in anything new now, given her advanced years (hope she proves me wrong). I've just found a thread for her on the britmovies site, which has a very funny clip of her starring in a spike milligan sketch. I remember in the late seventies (i think) she appeared in a play, cast as a high court judge. At the time i thought it was a strange role for her to play. A young man was on trial sitting in the dock with his worried wife and parents looking on from the public gallery. When the verdict is announced Stella sternly and impassively passes her sentence "you will be taken from this place, and go directly to my chambers, where i will give you 6 of the best". Of course the young man had been day dreaming and snapped back to reality where the boring court case continued. I then realised why they had got her to play the part - after all those sketches with spike she was well used to performing with aplombin in surreal situations.

have a good christmas

Hi again mate - thanks for the xmas greeting, hope yours was good too. My brother managed to get me some copies/dvd on ebay of Spike's 'Q' series 5 - 8, so Stella appeared in those!! Kind regards, Naseby

She was in a repeat of SYkes on UK Gold this week, playing Hattie Jaques old schoolfriend