GWYNETH GUTHRIE

BORN in Ayrshire in 1937, Gwyneth Guthrie was raised by her bank manager dad Jim and mum Enid along with little sister Anne.

She was educated at Ayr Academy, Ayr Grammar School and St Bride’s Helensburgh before going to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, in Glasgow, gaining her Silver Medal there.

She became a highly sought-after stage and radio actress.

In 1983, she landed the role of Mrs Mack, one of TV’s most memorable soap characters.

Married to John Borland, who died in 2018, they lived in a farmhouse near Kilmarnock and had three daughters – Karen, Debbie and Olwen.

As well as playing Mrs Mack, Gwyneth also played her sister, Florence, in the show.

Her Hollywood moment came in 1998 when she starred as a kilt shop manager in the Charlie Sheen film Post Mortem, filmed in Glasgow.

Having made her TV debut in the BBC’s Sunday Night Theatre in 1955, smaller roles included parts in Taggart and Dr Finlay

But the role she will be remembered for is Mrs Mack – created by Take the High Road’s story editor Peter May.

He said: “At the read-through of that episode, I was looking forward to meeting the actress who would play her.

“All the actors were gathered around the table for the reading and I searched in vain for the actress who would play the crotchety old village gossip.

“But the only unfamiliar face belonged to a glamorous lady who could only have been in her early 40s.

“‘This couldn’t be her,’ I thought. Then when she read the part, suddenly the character came to life.

“Mrs Mack was sitting right there among us. Make-up and wardrobe aged her for the camera and the rest, as they say, is history.”