Gail Grainger
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| Gail Grainger | |
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| Born | Gail Grainger 1954[1] Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom |
| Years active | 1971 - 1980 |
Gail Grainger is an English actress best remembered for her role as Miss Moira Plunkett, a travel courier in the 1972 comedy film Carry on Abroad, fitting the stereotype role normally given to Valerie Leon[2] in other outings in the series.
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[edit] Background
Gail Grainger took up dancing at the age of six and studied at a theatrical school. She had television roles in her teens in the BBC’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe and in ATV’s daily serial Crossroads [3].
[edit] Carry on Abroad
In Carry on Abroad Grainger's Miss Plunkett was assistant to Stuart Farquhar, a courier played by Kenneth Williams, who led a party that included Sidney James, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtry, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, June Whitfield, Sally Geeson and Carol Hawkins on a weekend trip to the fictional Spanish holiday resort of Elsbels. Cast for her voluptuous figure, the devastatingly attractive Miss Grainger replaced equally gorgeous Carry On regular Valerie Leon for this one picture. Her phlegmatic and slightly bemused approach to a series of disastrous situations culminated in her extricating the party from a foreign jail by making advances to the local police chief. This was a stereotypical Carry On role: a young woman in a uniform, who from time to time was reduced to a state of semi-undress, as, for example, when the touring party consume a love potion with pronounced aphrodisiac qualities.
[edit] Other roles
On stage she played three parts - a fantasy maid, a nurse and a member of a female gang led by Kate O'Mara as Madame Gerda - in a 1971 play entitled Dead Duck produced by Leslie Phillips, based on the television series The Avengers. This was first performed in Birmingham and later at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London [4]. She subsequently appeared with Leslie Phillips, and under his direction, in Joyce Rayburn’s comedy The Man Most Likely To ..., both at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London and on a world tour [5]. The Man Most Likely To ... opened initially at the Vaudeville Theatre, on 4 July 1968, and ran to over 1,000 performances in London.
She also appeared in episodes of a number of television series, including Casanova 73 (also with Leslie Phillips, 1973), Warship (as Heather Gardiner in the episode The Man from the Sea, 1974), The Sweeney (as Carter's girlfriend Jill in the episode The Sweet Smell of Succession, 1976), Butterflies (1979) and Rings on Their Fingers (1980) [6]. Her last film role is thought to have been in Jaguar Lives! (1979).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gail Grainger's age was given as 20 in 1974 in the programme for The Man Most Likely To ... at the Duke of York's Theatre, London. Bearing in mind her earlier career, it is possible that the programme notes were written a year or two earlier.
- ^ Carry on Abroad (1972) - Trivia
- ^ The Man Most Likely To ... programme, op.cit
- ^ The Avengers - 'The Avengers' stage play
- ^ The Man Most Likely To ... programme, op.cit
- ^ Gail Grainger in the Internet Movie DataBase
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