Born in Sydney, Australia, Esma Cannon came to Britain in the early
1930s to pursue a theatrical career before moving into films in 1937.
The diminutive character actress found fame portraying nosy spinsters,
dotty maids or agitated skivvies on stage and screen for thirty years.
She could be surprisingly moving, as in Holiday
Camp (1947) as the dim and dizzy Elsie who pays for her romantic
illusions with her life and as the mute servant in Jassy
(1947). In later years she became renowned as a stand-in on the `Carry
On' series and Little Lil in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade.
