Celia Johnson has become so inextricably linked to the part of Laura
in Brief Encounter
(1945) that it is sometimes surprising to see her in other roles. Much
of her career was in theatre, and since her acting is in any case quietly
self-effacing she seems to invite her own invisibility. One only has
to compare her role as the English suburban rose in Brief Encounter,
however, with that of the respectable working-class mam in This
Happy Breed (1944), made the year before, to recognise the skill
and range she brought to her film performances.
The British cinema of the 1960s and 1970s had little to offer her,
other than a good supporting role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).
In 1980 she partnered Trevor Howard again,
with passion spent but skill undiminished, in the BBC television adaptation
of Paul Scott's Staying On.
