Gavin & Stacey actress Margaret John dies, aged 84

Gavin & Stacey actress Margaret John dies, aged 84
Gavin & Stacey actress Margaret John dies, aged 84

Margaret John, who played Gavin and Stacey's Doris, has died at the age of 84, it has been announced. Margaret, who received a Bafta Cymru Lifetime Achievement award in 2009, passed away in the early hours of the morning in hospital in Swansea after a short illness. The Welsh actress, who's career spanned six decades, also starred in the BBC Wales comedy High Hopes as well as appearing on stage in Calendar Girls in the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff last summer. On hearing the news, Gavin and Stacey co-star James Cordon tweeted: "All my thoughts are with the family of Margaret John who played Doris in G and S. A great actress and an incredible lady. She will be misssed." Margaret's last appearance on screen was in the new S4C drama Alys on Sunday night, although in recent times she has been better known for her one-liners as sex-mad Doris in the hit cross-cultural comedy series. Watch Margaret in the 'salad scene' from Gavin and Stacey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLU4O5YqpQc Image courtesy of BBC

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.