Queenie Watts & Other Salt Of The Earth Actresses.

[Romany Jones.]

Did anyone else love watching this actress on TV & film she was usually found in some drama/tussle or sticking up for the underdog.

This is a lovely clip of her didn't realise she could sing that well.

Beryl Reid, Diana Dors, Julie Walters, Thora Hird, Joyce Grenfall, and Hilda Baker....I'm sure their many more, what are your favourite "salt of the earth" actresses? or Comediennes and, if possible give examples of their performances via youtube or similar.

A. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, 'the salt of the earth' is now used to describe 'a person or persons of great kindness, reliability or honesty'. People like lollipop ladies and shepherds. This backs up another claim for the origin of the saying.

[Romany Jones.]

Re: Queenie Watts & Other Salt Of The Earth Actresses.

And of course a lot of these actresses were seen in films that were reffered to as Kitchen Sink Dramas.

Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men. It used a style of social realism, which often depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons living in rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore social issues and political controversies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_sink_realism
Take for example Rita Tushingham in A Touch Of Honey.

The film won four BAFTA awards: Richardson won Best British Screenplay (with Delaney) and Best British Film, Bryan won Best Actress and Tushingham was named Most Promising Newcomer. Tushingham and Melvin were Best Actress and Actor at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. In America the film won Tushingham a 1963 Golden Globe for Most Promising Female Newcomer and got Richardson a 1963 Directors Guild of America award nomination. Delaney and Richardson also won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Honey_(film)

Tushingham married photographer Terry Bicknell in 1962. They had two daughters, Dodonna and Aisha Bicknell. In 1981, she married Iraqi cinematographer Ousama Rawi, spending eight years in Canada with him. She now divides her time between Germany and London, with her partner since the mid-1990s, writer Hans-Heinrich Ziemann.
In April 2005, at the age of 33, her daughter Aisha Bicknell was diagnosed with breast cancer. Aisha recovered and later gave birth to a son. Tushingham became an activist for breast cancer health and support.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Tushingham