RIP Thelma..........alias Brigit Forsyth.

We said goodbye last Monday to, to my mind, one of the greatest actresses Britain has ever produced - Brigit Forsyth. She was 83.

Some, if not most, of luvvie world might think that is a bit strong. She was good, respected and will be missed, they seem to have chimed as one - but she was much more than that.

You see, Brigit Dorothea Connell (her real name) was a lovely, charming and thoroughly likeable woman, by all accounts, and so her brilliance as an actress came, I say, from her ability to portray on screen ONE OF THE WORST HUMAN BEINGS EVER! Yes............Thelma Chambers (pet).

Thelma was the LONG-time girlfriend and eventual wife of Bob Ferris (played by Rodney Bewes) in the greatest television sitcom I've ever seen - Whatever Happened Happened To The Likely Lads. The original Likely Lads was good, and sequels are seldom much good, but Whatever Happened To...... was sublime!

There's just not enough time or space here to go into Brigit's portrayal of Thelma, suffice to say that, with the help of THE two best British comedy writers of all time - Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, she made her the most jealous, insecure, nest building-obsessed, snobbish, nagging, whining, spoiled, hypocritical and wholly unreasonable creature on the face of  the TV world.

So Brigit, thanks for the memories, those teeth-grinding, head-punching, shouting-at-the-tv memories. You WILL be misssed.