Born of Mischief: Penelope Keith was a first-rate comedic act on and off the stage | stage

pENELOPE KEITH, who has died aged 86, became truly famous for her chic, mischievous appearances in TV comedies such as The Good Life and To the Manor Born. But I can vouch for the fact that something of this quality, honed with sophisticated comedic technique, lies within Penny herself. I first met her when I was working at the Royal Lincoln Theatre, where she was a member of the company, in the early 1960s. I distinctly remember her previewing a huge exhibition of paintings by a local artist in the theater foyer, and remarking solemnly: “Busy lady!” And sweeping. Such style and confidence from a 23-year-old was rare.

The hurt was also there from the beginning. A year or so later, Penny was found performing in small roles at the RSC where she gained notoriety even as one of the crowd in Julius Caesar: when Mark Antony urged citizens to lend their ears to him, her voice was heard to pierce the sound of the crowd with a cry of “Peace be upon you, then.” Clearly destined for bigger things, she starred as a sharp-tongued assassin in the first play I reviewed for the Guardian, Francis Durbridge’s Suddenly at Home, in 1971.

But comedy was clearly her forte, and her breakthrough was her performance in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests at the Greenwich Theater and then the West End in 1974. As the uptight Sarah who finds herself vulnerable to the advances of her lecherous brother-in-law, she brilliantly suggested a woman whose emotions had long been buried beneath a diligent domesticity. One critic wrote: “She can bring a lot of fun into the house, by delivering a direct line like: ‘I’ve had a lot of nervous problems’ while polishing the dining table as she talks.” In fact, she cleaned the silver as if she wished to do so as a personal injury, which caused her to squeal with delight when Tom Courtenay’s Norman suggested a more entertaining dirty weekend in Bournemouth.

Felicity Kendall was also a member of that company and they were memorably paired on The Good Life: As Kendall pointed out, the fact that the two as well as Richard Briers and Paul Eddington had some 50 years of acting experience behind them was a major factor in the show’s success. Penny has parlayed her television fame into a number of theatrical productions. In Michael Frayn’s The Donkey Years, she was funny as the wife of an Oxbridge professor full of frustrated desire, short-sightedly addressing a heart-rending lover’s letter to the wrong man. She was also striking in two of Shaw’s lavish revivals: as a king’s silk-trousered mistress in The Apple Cart, she played with extreme caution, and as the eponymous millionaire heroine who feigns poverty in her desperation for human contact, she displayed elegant aloofness.

A natural comedic actress, she has worked her way through many classic roles: Judith Bliss in Hay Fever, Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. But she had the ability to transcend comedy. Early in her career, she was impressive as one of the sexually frustrated girls in Lorca’s novel The House of Bernarda Alba. Later, she was no less powerful as Hester Collier in Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea: when her test-pilot lover announced that he was abandoning her, the flash of pain that crossed her face became a mirror of her tortured soul. On the whole, it avoided icy areas that witnessed great tragedy. What we cherish is her ability to make us laugh and to point out that within the starchy traditions of upper-class English femininity lurk evil, mischief, and the desire for adventure.