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 Diane Neeltje Holland, she was raised in England, where she lived for the remainder of her life. She was partly Dutch through her paternal ancestry. On arrival in Britain, the family was hampered by her father's ill-health, the after-effects of having been gassed in the trenches during World War I. During World War II, Diane and her sister Gilda were evacuated with their school (Cone-Ripman) to Loddington Hall, in Leicestershire.

Career

Finding a love for dance as a young girl, Diane trained as a dancer at the London Cone Ripman (now Arts Educational), and enjoyed success throughout her career on stage. In her youth, Diane earned the role of principal dancer in Sunday Night at the London Palladium shows, and also performed as principal during summer seasons in Monte Carlo and other European casino hotspots as part of an adagio act. She also performed in many West End productions including: ‘Her Excellency’ (1949), ‘Fancy Free’ (1951), and ‘Rocking the Town’(1956).

Having always enjoyed acting in addition to dance, Diane also appeared in many theatre productions, later turning her attentions to television, playing the recurring role of Sarah Maynard in ''Crossroads'' from 1964 to 1970.
In the late 1960s she also received critical acclaim for her performance as Miss Amelia in the European premiere of The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, alongside Skip Martin. During the 1970s, she frequently worked alongside comedian Eric Sykes in ''Big Bad Mouse'' (1972) ''Sykes'' and TV film '' The Likes of Sykes'' (1980). At the peak of ''Hi-de-Hi!'' in the 1980s, Holland received letters from British troops in the Falklands with the BBC press office stating that she had become a Forces' sweetheart, although she claimed this was a slight exaggeration and that it ‘just snowballed’.

Later in her career, Diane earned her most well-known part of ballroom dancer Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves in ''Hi-de-Hi!'' (1980). Jimmy Perry, who co-wrote ''Hi-De-Hi!'', had married Diane's sister Gilda, and saw Diane's talent after she appeared in pantomimes and plays at The Watford Palace, which he and Gilda managed together. By the time Hi De Hi came into production, Diane was suffering from serious arthritis in her hip, a common plight for dancers, and the show's choreographer noted how she would arrive for rehearsals ‘limping badly’ but during filming she ‘hid it very well’. Diane did not appear in the summer theatre shows of Hi De Hi partly due to this, and also being keen not to be too heavily associated with one character. Prior to Hi De Hi, Diane appeared in Tales of the Unexpected in the episode named The Stinker, and Stig of the Dump as Mrs Fawkham-Greene. She also appeared in ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' as a maternity hospital receptionist. She played Miss Lavant in the TV film ‘The Children of Dynmouth’ (1987), and Madame Dupree in Lace 2 (1985).
Following the end of ''Hi-de-Hi!'' in 1990 she appeared in ITV Central, Central Television's comedy ''The Upper Hand'', and in an episode of Bergerac as a music teacher. In 1992–93, she played the notorious female magistrate, Celia Littlewood, who had eyes for Miss Brahms, in ''Grace and Favour'', the sequel to ''Are You Being Served''.

One of her last appearances was in one of her favourite roles as maiden aunt in ''The Nutcracker'' in The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, a role she had played for many years. She also received critical acclaim for her role as a terminally ill patient in Casualty in 2001.

Death

Diane lived quietly in the village of Godstone, Surrey, where she died at home on 24 January 2009 at the age of 78 after contracting bronchial pneumonia. Her burial place is unknown, but is falsely claimed to be the graveyard of St. Nicholas' Church in Godstone. She never married or had children, and while a private lady, her obituaries frequently note her being ‘extremely kind-hearted’ and her ‘very dry sense of humour’. Diane's agent stated that she was ‘a real trouper’, ‘a joy to look after’, and ‘extremely hard-working’. The news of her death was not made public until more than three weeks later. She was survived by her younger sister, Gilda Neeltje Perry, a former dancer, actress and theatre manager."Hi-De-Hi!'s Yvonne dies aged 78"
BBC.co.uk; accessed 25 October 2016.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Diane
1930 births
2009 deaths
People from Godstone
Deaths from pneumonia in England
English television actresses
English people of Dutch descent
20th-century English actresses
20th-century British businesspeople
Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom
English people of Australian descent