Hylda Baker - Television Career

Television Career

Baker came to national attention in BBC television's The Good Old Days in 1955. This led to her television series, Be Soon (named after another of her catchphrases), in 1957 and a supporting part in the sitcom Our House in 1960, followed by her own sitcom, The Best of Friends, in 1963. She also appeared in films, including Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and the film version of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! (1968). Reisz had seen her performing her sketches at the Chiswick Empire theatre.

Baker's most famous role, alongside fellow Lancastrian Madge Hindle, was as Nellie Pledge in the Granada Television comedy series Nearest and Dearest (1968–73). Playing her brother Eli was the comedian Jimmy Jewel and the series was centred on their characters' love-hate relationship as they tried to run their small family business, Pledge's Purer Pickles. As they bickered onscreen and traded insults such as "knocked-kneed knackered old nosebag" and "big girl's blouse", the insults continued offscreen as the two disliked each other intensely and their arguments became showbiz legend. A film version of the series was made by Hammer Films in 1972 (the same year she was celebrated in an episode of This Is Your Life). Later in the series, Baker began having trouble remembering her lines and had to rely on cue cards.

Baker played a virtually identical role in the LWT comedy series Not On Your Nellie (1974–75). In this series she played Nellie Pickersgill, who moves to London from the North to run her ailing father's pub. However the series was short-lived and, by this time, Baker was again finding it difficult to remember her lines and was also refusing to attend rehearsals. After suing the production company for an on-set injury in which she broke her leg (after slipping on beer on the set), the series ended, as did her television acting career.

Baker recreated her variety act in an episode of the BBC series The Good Old Days in 1976.

In an unusual coda to her musical career, she teamed with Arthur Mullard in 1978 to record a comedy version of "You're The One That I Want" from the film Grease. Baker and Mullard, then aged 73 and 68, dressed in wigs and costumes similar to the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John characters from Grease and appeared on the BBC show Top of the Pops and the Granada Television music show for children Get It Together. The pair recorded an album of pop covers entitled Band On The Trot.

Her final television appearance came the same year in an episode of the BBC arts documentary show Omnibus about female comedians, broadcast on 28 December 1978.