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Keith began her acting career onstage and joined the Royal
Shakespeare Company in 1963. But she found her greatest fame on
television.
She won a BAFTA award in 1977 for “The Good Life,” playing Margo
Leadbetter, a snobbish suburbanite appalled by her
back-to-the-land neighbors Tom and Barbara Good, played by
Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.
Kendal called Keith a “comic genius.”
“She was a joy to know and work with, and she will be much
missed,” Kendal said.
Keith displayed a similar mix of imperiousness and deadpan wit
in “To the Manor Born,” broadcast between 1979 and 1981 and
brought back for a 2007 Christmas special. Keith played
cash-strapped aristocratic widow Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, forced
to sell her country estate to a nouveau millionaire, played by
Peter Bowles, with whom she has a love-hate relationship.
Keith's velvet tones featured on children’s show “Teletubbies”
and in ads for everything from Pimm’s to Parker Pens. She also
presented cozy documentary TV series, including “Penelope
Keith’s Hidden Villages.”
Keith continued to perform in stage roles into her 80s. Theaters
in London’s West End will dim their lights on Wednesday evening
in tribute to her.
In 2014 she was made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight,
for services to the arts and to charity.
She is survived by her husband, Rodney Timson, and their two
adopted sons.
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