Biography - an account of the series of events making up a person's life.

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Wendy Richard
born: 20-07-1943
birth place: Middlesbrough, England

She was born Wendy Emerton and went to the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Hertfordshire. Following that Richard attended the Italia Conti Academy stage school, where she ‘caught the acting bug’, before moving into television and film work. She made her debut, at age seventeen, in ‘Sammy Meets the Girls’ (1960), a television movie starring Sammy Davis Junior. Richard played a number of small roles in episodes of various television series in the 1960s, including ‘Harpers West One’ (1961), ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ (1962 and 1971), ‘Hugh and I’ (1962), ‘Danger Man’ (1964) and ‘The Likely Lads’ (1965). Her first memorable role was as Joyce Harker in BBC’s soap opera ‘The Newcomers’ (1965 - 1969).

In 1962, the (spoken rather than sung) sardonic cockney vocals Richard provided on Mike Sarne’s single ‘Come Outside’, achieved her a number one on the UK charts, albeit an uncredited one. Encouraged by this, Richard teamed up with her friend, hairdresser Diane Berry, to make another record, merely for “a bit of fun”. Decca released the 45rpm format vinyl in 1963. The A-side song, “We Had a Dream” was a close-harmony duet and the B-side, “Keep ‘Em Looking Around”, included a heartbreaking monologue by Richard at the end of the song. She had top billing on the label this time, although the songs received mixed reviews and never made it onto the charts.

Her next two film roles were also uncredited, the first – her debut on the big screen - as a nurse in the comedy ’Doctor in Clover’ (1966) and the second as a girl in a nightclub in the television drama ‘A Catching Complaint’ (1966). Next up was a more substantial role in another television drama, ‘The Making of Jericho’ (1966), filmed in black and white. It starred John Thaw who later became known as Inspector Morse in the television show of the same name.

‘The Wednesday Play’ was created by Sydney Newman and ran from 1964 to 1970. It was a BBC television series of one-off plays that gave airtime to many unknown writers and directors of the late 1960s. Richard starred in ‘The Voices in the Park’, a 1967 episode and was in a 1970 episode of the slapstick Roman comedy television series ‘Up Pompeii’. She played Clara in ‘No Blade of Grass’ (1970), a sci-fi doomsday film based on the 1956 novel by John Christopher, about a deadly virus hitting London, starring Nigel Davenport and Jean Wallace.

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