Nicola Caroline Kelly (born 23 November 1951) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

, who is best known for her role as Sylvia Garnsey in the long-running

British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. Most British sitcoms are recorded on studio sets, while some have an element of location filming. A handful are made almost exclusively on location ...

Hi-de-Hi! ''Hi-de-Hi!'' is a BBC television sitcom shown on BBC1 from 1 January 1980 to 30 January 1988. Set in 1959 and 1960 in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, the show was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote '' Dad's Army'' an ...

''. Born in Leamington Spa in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, Kelly is the great-niece of eminent actor and theatrical manager Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, who co-founded

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Se ...

in 1904. His daughter, and Kelly's aunt, was actress

Jean Forbes-Robertson Jean Forbes-Robertson (16 March 1905 – 24 December 1962) was an English actress. A versatile Shakespearean actress, she was often cast in boys' roles because of her slim build, playing Jim Hawkins in a stage version of ''Treasure Island'', Pu ...

, best known for portraying Peter Pan on stage.'Teacher biographies', ''Brightsparks Performers and Theatrical Agency''

Retrieved 21 January 2015. Kelly completed the three year acting course (Diploma of Speech & Drama) at the Rose Bruford College, Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama, between September 1971 and July 1974. She gained early theatre experience working in a number of repertory companies across England. She made an early television appearance in ''

Dixon of Dock Green ''Dixon of Dock Green'' was a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 19 ...

'' in 1975, and starred in the sex film ''You're Driving Me Crazy'' in 1978. However, she is best known for appearing in all nine series of ''Hi-de-Hi!'' as Yellowcoat Sylvia.

Film roles

Television roles

Theatre roles

In the 1970s, Kelly performed in the original productions of such stage plays as ''There Goes the Bride'' (1974) and ''Snatch 69'' (1975) and in several overseas tours, including ''

No Sex Please, We're British ''No Sex Please, We're British'' is a British farce written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott, which premiered in London's West End on 3 June 1971 at the Strand Theatre. It was panned by critics, but ran until 5 September 1987, transferri ...

'' in Sweden, ''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'' in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

, and ''Who Goes Bare'' in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. At the peak of the television fame in the late 1980s, Kelly appeared as an Olympic volleyball player in ''Dig Volley Spike'' at the

Old Red Lion Theatre The Old Red Lion is a pub and fringe theatre, at Angel, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre was founded in 1979 as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. The pub was Grade II listed in 1994 by Historic England. History Construction The p ...

in Islington and performed opposite

John Inman Frederick John Inman (28 June 1935 – 8 March 2007) was an English actor and singer best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in '' Are You Being Served?'', a British sitcom between 1972 and 1985, and was the only actor from that series to featu ...

in a production of

Derek Benfield Derek Benfield (11 March 1926 – 10 March 2009) was a British playwright and actor. He was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at Bingley Grammar School. He was the author of the stage farce ''Running Riot'' and pla ...

's farce ''Bedside Manners'', which opened at the Salisbury Playhouse in March 1989 and toured for seven months. During that period, Kelly also began to perform regularly in pantomime. In December 1989, she appeared as the Wicked Queen Griselda in a production of ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'' at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, which subsequently transferred to the Grand Theatre, Leeds. She has since reprised the role in numerous other incarnations of the show, including productions at the Grand Theatre, Swansea (1990/91), the Broadway Theatre, Catford (2008/09), the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft (2010/11), the Palace Theatre, Redditch (2011/12) and the Harlequin Theatre, Redhill (2013/14). Kelly has also performed the comparable roles of the Evil Queen or Fairy Carabosse in various productions of ''Sleeping Beauty'' at the Middleton Arena, Rochdale (2009), the Connaught Theatre, Worthing (2012/13) and elsewhere. Kelly has also appeared as the Wicked Witch in a pantomime version of ''The Wizard of Oz''. In March 2010, Kelly appeared in a revised version of the stage adaptation of ''Hi-de-Hi'', in which she played ballroom dancer Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves (originally performed in the television series by the late

Diane Holland Diane Holland (pronounced Dee-arn) (28 February 1930 – 24 January 2009) was a British actress and dancer best known for playing Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves in ''Hi-de-Hi!'' from 1980 to 1988. Early life Born in Melbourne, Australia as June D ...

). The role of Yvonne's husband, Barry, was reprised on stage by its original portrayer,

Barry Howard Barry Frederick Howard (9 July 1937 – 28 April 2016) was an English actor. He was best known for his role as Barry Stuart-Hargreaves in the first seven series of the long-running BBC sitcom ''Hi-de-Hi!'', in which his deadpan comedy style ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Nikki 1951 births Living people People from Leamington Spa English television actresses