Avis Bunnage

Avis Bunnage was an English actress who worked in film, stage and television. Born in Ardwick, Manchester, she worked as a secretary and nursery teacher before turning to acting, and she made her first professional appearance at the Chorlton Rep Theatre in Manchester in 1947. She joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, where she created the role of Helen in A Taste of Honey and appeared in Oh, What a Lovely War!, both of which transferred to Wyndham's Theatre. Her other stage roles included Mrs Lovett in Christopher Bond's Sweeney Todd and the leading part in a music hall play about Marie Lloyd. On television she played Veronica in Rising Damp and Amy Jenkinson in In Loving Memory, and appeared in The Frighteners and Wodehouse Playhouse. Her films included the British New Wave productions Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962).