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6 unusual facts about Joyce Grenfell


Charles Paul Phipps

Their second son, William Wilton Phipps, was the grandfather of both Joyce Grenfell and Simon Wilton Phipps MC, the Bishop of Lincoln.

Chiswell Langhorne

He was the father of Nancy Witcher Langhorne and the maternal grandfather of both Joyce Grenfell and Michael Langhorne Astor.

Joseph Cooper

The panellists included Joyce Grenfell, Robin Ray (who had an encyclopedic memory for opus numbers, etc.), and occasionally Bernard Levin.

Joyce Grenfell

Much of the music for Grenfell's revues and shows was the result of a collaboration with the composers and pianists Richard Addinsell and William Blezard.

In 1998, the Royal Mail memorialised Grenfell with her image on a postage stamp as part of a series of stamps celebrating Heroes of Comedy.

Kate Bertram

One such was Joyce Grenfell, who became an honorary Fellow, and the college now has a valuable archive of her papers.


Entertainments National Service Association

Many well-known stars have performed in ENSA, including Gracie Fields, George Formby, Wilfrid Brambell, Joyce Grenfell, Paul Scofield, Rebecca Cantwell, Dora Bryan and Vera Lynn.

John Stanton Ward

He made illustrations for a number of large companies - BP, Shell, Whitbread - and undertook portraits of royalty, cabinet ministers, city businessmen, and celebrities - Joyce Grenfell, Sir Michael Adeane, Sir Roger Bannister, Lord Denning, Norman Parkinson and Sir Arthur Norrington - and for members of the Society of Dilettanti and of Annabel's.

Sound Charades

Occasionally, truly masterful clues are given: for example the film Dirty Harry was clued with the single line "Potter! ... Don't do that.", delivered in an impression of Alan Rickman's portrayal of Severus Snape.

The Yellow Iris

Joyce Grenfell reviewed the play in The Observers edition of 7 November 1937 when she said, "I had hoped to say such nice things about Agatha Christie's Yellow Iris" but found that Holles was, "the only happy thing in the broadcast".


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