Two Ronnies and Corrie actress Dilys dies age 78
DILYS Watling arrived in Coronation Street in 1966, playing Merle Baker, a young woman desperate to find an old boyfriend who had promised to marry her when she turned 21.
Sadly for Merle, her ex had already wed someone else, but for Dilys the role was a career high that led to parts in TV classics The Two Ronnies and The Morecambe & Wise Show as well as a role that took Broadway by storm.
The actress, who died last week, aged 78, after a long illness, was described as a “trailblazer” by her family last night.
Her brother Giles Watling, 68, an actor and Tory MP for Clacton in Essex, paid tribute, saying: “She was eccentric in many ways, but was always incredibly generous, warm and loving.”
Dilys’s TV roles also included The Bill, The Benny Hill Show and Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width, while her film credits included the 1963 comedy Two Left Feet and the horror movie Theatre of Death in 1967.
She was nominated for a
Tony Award in 1970 for best leading actress in a musical after her debut in Georgy on Broadway in New York.
Dilys was born in Buckinghamshire in 1943 to Ion
Rhys Jones and Patricia Hicks. Her dad, a Lancaster Bomber pilot, was killed in action in the Second World
War and her mum later married actor Jack Watling, having four more children.
After leaving St Mary’s Convent School in Essex, Dilys attended acting school and went on to perform in repertory theatre at the Bristol Old Vic. She appeared in eight episodes of The Two Ronnies between 1972 and 1984, playing a range of sketch characters.
Dilys also appeared on stage in Pickwick in 1964, Sweeney Todd in 1980 and Time in 1986. Her final TV role was in 1994, when she appeared in an episode of Minder.
Dilys’s half-sister Deborah Watling, who starred in Doctor Who, died in 2017. Brother Giles’s acting credits included a role as a vicar in Carla Lane’s Bread.
He said: “Dilys was a much-loved sister and was the eldest of the five of us. She led the way and was a real trailblazer for the rest of us. She took Broadway by storm in the late 1960s, playing the eponymous role of Georgy – and we were proud when she was nominated for a Tony Award.
“She also released a couple of singles, including Don’t Say You Love Me, which made it into the charts in 1964.”
He said Dilys, who died at her home in Clapham, South London, and leaves a son, Ion, had spent her final days reminiscing with loved ones.
He said: “She recounted stories of her life that we thought she had long-since forgotten. After a long illness, she passed away peacefully.”
Dilys’s first husband was Australian Bruce Anderson and she later married Line of Duty and Game of Thrones actor Owen Teale, the father of her son.
Dilys and Teale split in 1994.
She took Broadway by storm in the late 1960s as Georgy
GILES WATLING ACTOR AND BROTHER OF DILYS