Ann Mitchell

[chuffnobbler]

Watching the magnificent ANN MITCHELL in EastEnders lately has been such a treat. One character described her character, Cora, as "that scary lady". Paired up with Dot and Dot's batty sister, she looks to be one of the great EE charracters of recent years,

Ms Mitchell will always be Dolly Rawlins, and I suppose her TV career has suffered owing to being typecast. Widows is such a wonderful piece of work, and Ms Mitchell makes Dolly such a complex character: part maternal, part threatening. i recently saw the Widows follow-up, She's Out, which is actually even better than the original Widows. The last episode is as good as TV drama will be. Again, it's just not possible to watch anyone else when Ann Mitchell is onscreen.

Despite her tough image, she's such a lovely, warm, "artsy" woman. i briefly met her at the annual memorial to Kirsty MacColl, a couple of years back: she was there as a friend of Kirsty's mum, and was utterly delightful.

In some ways, it's a shame that her TV work has ended up in the Dolly Rawlins vein (a wonderful appearance in Gimme Gimme Gimme, which pokes fun at her hardfaced image). She's evidently had great successes with her stage career, in roles far more diverse than she is known for on TV.

She's perfect in EastEnders at the moment, and I wondered what others thought of her.

Over to you ...

[stuart.scot]

She did a good Taggart, I also remember as a young trouble maker in Upstairs Downstairs disrupting James Bellamy's political meeting as he stood for Parliment. Ann's a great actress, particulary good as menacing figures like Dolly Rawlins