Skip to main content
BFI logo

Home

Film

Television

People

History

Education

Tours

Help

  search

Search

Screenonline banner
Nichols, Dandy (1907-1986)
 

Actor

Main image of Nichols, Dandy (1907-1986)

Best remembered as 'silly old moo' Else Garnett, impervious foil to the bigoted Alf in Till Death Do Us Part (BBC, 1966-75), Dandy Nichols also enjoyed a long and distinguished theatrical career, playing opposite John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the Royal Court opening of 'Home'. Her doughy face became familiar in big-screen comedies from the 1940s onward, typically essaying cockney charladies, domestics and dowdy housewives.

Born Daisy Sander, she initially acted on an amateur basis, using her income as a secretary to pay for drama, diction and fencing classes. After being spotted in a charity show she joined a Cambridge repertory company, choosing the stage name of Barbara Nichols, which she later amended to Dandy - her childhood nickname. Her theatrical career was put on hold for two years with the outbreak of WWII, but she subsequently toured with ENSA, going on to make her film debut in Hue and Cry (d. Charles Crichton, 1947).

Over the next two decades she alternated between minor character parts in the cinema and more substantial theatrical fare, also appearing in episodes of Emergency - Ward 10 (ITV, 1957-67), Dixon of Dock Green (BBC, 1955-76), and Armchair Theatre (ITV, 1959-74), and providing a memorable cameo in the Beatles' Help! (d. Richard Lester, 1965). The following year she made her debut as Else in Till Death Do Us Part - a part originally played by Gretchen Franklin in the Comedy Playhouse pilot (BBC, tx. 22/7/1965). Focusing on the narrow-minded rants of Warren Mitchell's Alf Garnett, the show ran until 1975 and spawned two feature spin-offs. The put-upon and usually uncomprehending Else quickly became a focus of audience sympathy, frequently (and unintentionally) puncturing her husband's balloon with an off-hand remark. However, by the last series Nichols had tired of the role, so Else was moved to Australia to live with her sister.

She later won acclaim opposite Alastair Sim in Play for Today's 'The General's Day' (BBC, tx. 20/11/1972), and offered a malevolent take on Else as an absent-minded kidnapper in the Bergerac episode 'A Message for the Rich' (BBC, tx. 9/1/1983). She twice returned to play Else, first in an ITV revival, Till Death... (ITV, 1981), and finally in In Sickness and in Health (BBC, 1985-1992). As Nichols was now suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, Else was confined to a wheelchair. She died shortly after the transmission of her final appearance in the 1985 Christmas special.

Richard Hewett

More information

FILM & TV CREDITS

From the BFI's filmographic database

Related media

Selected credits

Thumbnail image of Britannia Hospital (1982)Britannia Hospital (1982)

Lindsay Anderson's unhinged satire of Thatcher's Britain

Thumbnail image of Carry On Doctor (1968)Carry On Doctor (1968)

Frankie Howerd joins the team on its second tour of the wards

Thumbnail image of Crowded Day, The (1954)Crowded Day, The (1954)

The lives and loves of department store workers during Christmas week

Thumbnail image of Dance Hall (1950)Dance Hall (1950)

Low-key drama about factory workers and their evening escapades

Thumbnail image of Early Bird, The (1965)Early Bird, The (1965)

Milkman Norman Wisdom tries to save Grimsdale's Dairy from takeover

Thumbnail image of Knack ...and How to Get It, The (1965)Knack ...and How to Get It, The (1965)

Archetypal Swinging London film which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes

Thumbnail image of Scott of the Antarctic (1948)Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

Lavish recreation of Captain Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole

Thumbnail image of Winslow Boy, The (1948)Winslow Boy, The (1948)

Adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play about a boy accused of theft

Thumbnail image of Yield to the Night (1956)Yield to the Night (1956)

Diana Dors stars in a powerful anti-capital punishment film

Thumbnail image of Till Death Us Do Part (1966-75)Till Death Us Do Part (1966-75)

Controversial comedy with Warren Mitchell as the bigoted Alf Garnett

Thumbnail image of Trial of Dr Fancy, The (1964)Trial of Dr Fancy, The (1964)

Absurd satire about conformism and a strange medical practice.

Thumbnail image of Trouble With Our Ivy, The (1961)Trouble With Our Ivy, The (1961)

A horticultural dispute escalates into an absurd gardening apocalypse

Related collections

Related people and organisations

Thumbnail image of Speight, Johnny (1920-1998)Speight, Johnny (1920-1998)

Writer