Hird, Thora (1911-2003)

English actor. She followed her screen debut in Spellbound (1940) with 60 films, including The Entertainer (1960) and A Kind of Loving (1962). On television she starred in Meet the Wife (1964-66) and In Loving Memory (1979-86). She won a BAFTA Best Television Actress award for her monologue A Cream Cracker Under the Settee (1988) in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series, and was created DBE in 1993.

As a presenter of religious programmes, she has hosted Your Songs of Praise Choice and Praise Be!, accompanying them with several publications, such as Thora on the Straight and Narrow (1993). Other television work includes Ours is a Nice House (1969), Memento Mori (1992), Wide Eyed and Legless (1993), and Pat and Margaret (1994).

Hird was born of theatrical parents in Morecambe, Lancashire. She was ‘discovered’ in repertory theatre and given her first film contract at the age of 16.