Wanda Ventham
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| Wanda Ventham | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1939 Brighton, East Sussex, England) |
| Occupation | Actor |
Wanda Ventham (born 1939, Brighton, East Sussex, England) is an English actor, mainly on television.
She is a familiar face in many television series in Britain, although she has never achieved star status. She is well known for her role as Col. Virginia Lake in the 1970 science fiction TV series UFO and for her recurring role in Only Fools and Horses as Pamela Parry (Cassandra's mother) (1989-1992), alongside Denis Lill. Her son is the actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
Her first appearance on film was in a British drama called My Teenage Daughter with Anna Neagle and Sylvia Syms. She also appeared in the films Carry On Cleo (1964) and Carry On Up the Khyber (1968).
Her numerous television credits included regular roles in Heartbeat as Fiona Weston (1996 - 1997); Hetty Wainthropp Investigates as Margaret Balshaw; and The Rag Trade as Shirley (1962-1963). She also played a love interest for Arthur Daley in Minder; Susan's mother in Coupling and Deborah's mother in Men Behaving Badly. She had the lead role in the 15 part BBC TV series The Lotus Eaters in 1972/73 starring with Ian Hendry, and made guest appearance in Rutland Weekend Television, the first TV series made by comic Eric Idle after Monty Python's Flying Circus came to an end. Other comedy roles included appearances on The Two Ronnies.
She has appeared in Doctor Who on three occasions over three decades: playing Jean Rock in The Faceless Ones (1967); Thea Ransome in Image of the Fendahl (1977); and Faroon in Time and the Rani (1987); and had a small role in the science fiction drama The Prisoner and the sitcom Executive Stress.
