Liza Goddard

Liza Goddard (born 20 January 1950) is an English television and stage actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life

Goddard was born in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. She is the daughter of British producer David Goddard and attended Farnham Girls' Grammar School, before he moved the family to Australia when she was 15 upon his appointment as Head of Drama at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Career

Goddard made early television appearances in Australia, including episode 100 of Homicide ("The Traveller", 1966), and the ABC drama play Romanoff & Juliet (1967), and a brief (non-speaking, uncredited) appearance in the feature film They're A Weird Mob (1966). However, she is best remembered in Australia for her role as Clarissa "Clancy" Merrick in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in which she appeared in the first two series and 48 episodes.^[1][2][3]

After returning to the UK in 1969 as an adult, she was cast as Victoria Edgecombe, the character created by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham in Take Three Girls (1969),^[2] and then its sequel Take Three Women (1982). She also had a supporting role in the 1972 movie Ooh… You Are Awful. Her career breakthrough was as April in The Brothers (1972–76), which also featured her first husband, Colin Baker. She appeared as Jocelyn in National Pelmet, the Series 2 opener of critically acclaimed drama Minder.

A comedy role alongside Donal Donnelly in Yes, Honestly (1976–77), by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham followed, as did a role, with Christopher Biggins, in a BBC1 sitcom Watch This Space (1980), by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe. This was followed by Pig in the Middle (1980–83) also written by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham.

Goddard was one of the 'explorers' who were evaporated in a (now missing) episode of the BBC science fiction quiz programme The Adventure Game (1980), played a space pirate in the Doctor Who story Terminus (1983), and appeared in Roll Over Beethoven (1985). Goddard appeared in Woof!, a Children's ITV programme first broadcast in 1989. Her third husband, producer and director David Cobham, created this series. She had earlier appeared in the TV adaptation of Brendon Chase, also produced and directed by Cobham.

For many years, she was also the female team leader on long-running quiz/panel show Give Us A Clue, replacing Una Stubbs in the role.

Goddard appeared as Laurel Manasotti in the ITV sitcom That's Love.

She later had a recurring role as Philippa Vale in Bergerac and alongside Dawn French and Catherine Tate in Wild West (2002). In 2007 she appeared in the Midsomer Murders episode "A Picture of Innocence", reuniting her with Bergerac star John Nettles. In 2013 she toured with the official Agatha Christie Theatre Company in Go Back for Murder, an adaptation of the book Five Little Pigs.

Personal life

Goddard's first marriage was to former Doctor Who actor Colin Baker. In 1981 she married pop star Alvin Stardust.^[4] She is now married to producer and director David Cobham. Goddard's daughter from her relationship with Stardust, Sophie Jewry, was critically injured at the age of two months after she fell down a set of stairs and suffered a severe fracture of the skull. She later recovered from her injuries.^[4] Her first child, Thom Goddard, is a film and television producer. He lives in London. Her second child, Sophie, runs a graphic design and printing business and lives in Norfolk.

Goddard lives near Dereham,^[5] Norfolk, with her husband and a home full of rescued animals. Goddard also works with the RSPCA amongst other charities. Goddard suffered and recovered from breast cancer in 1997.^[6]

References