CDA: Eggar and Scales

Two English actresses have left us. Samantha Eggar died last week at the age of 86. I first noticed her in an amazing William Wyler movie called The Collector. SUPER CREEPY, it's so good and she's fantastic in it. She got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

And if you think that was creepy, try another movie on her list, David Cronenberg's The Brood.

I don't want you to think that was all she did so I'll throw in this commercial.

And Prunella Scales just died yesterday at the age of 93. She's best known for playing the long-suffering wife of John Cleese in Fawlty Towers.

I never got into that show, do I need to check it out? I first encountered her in a small role in Howards End. But for me she'll always be Mapp of Mapp and Lucia, a darling two-season BBC show that my husband was crazy about.

Mapp has an inflated view of her importance and is always being brought down a few pegs. I suppose Lucia always has an inflated view of HER importance but she does it with such grace and style, she's not mean about it.

For those of you who are prisoners of public television (to borrow an expression from Sex, Lies, and Videotape) Scales was the mother of Sam West, who plays Siegfried on All Creatures Great and Small. He was also in Howards End, come to think of it...