Diane Keen
Encyclopedia
Diane Keen is an English
actress.
Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British
TV drama
Doctors which she has been in since 2003 (starring as Julia Parsons
), and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz
and Rings on Their Fingers
.
(whom she married in 1969), star of the 1970s comedy series, Rosie
. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979, and a subsequent marriage to producer Neil Zeiger whom she married in 1981 also ended in divorce in 1993. She is the grandmother of Siena Pugsley who plays her on screen granddaughter Chloe in Doctors.
, Rings on Their Fingers
, Shillingbury Tales
, Foxy Lady
and You Must Be The Husband
, and in two runs of a Thames Television
children's historical costume drama The Feathered Serpent
. She also appeared on The Morecambe and Wise Show and starred as Laura Dickens in the critically acclaimed spy drama The Sandbaggers
. She also starred as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Fall of Eagles
and appeared in the spin-off film of the 1970s detective drama, The Sweeney
.
In her early career she appeared full frontal nude in the 1973 British
sex comedy
, The Sex Thief
.
She played Hilda in The Professionals
series 1 episode Killer With a Long Arm, in 1978.
In 1980 she appeared as Christina, a widowed restaurant owner, in Series 1 episode The Dessert Song of Minder
.
After spending much of the 1980s off screen, apart from a long-running series of advertisements for Nescafé
coffee and an appearance in an episode of Taggart
, in the next decade she became a regular in the Inspector Wexford
series, playing the wife of Wexford's D.I. Roles in Brookside
and A Touch of Frost followed.
's daytime soap opera
Doctors, playing Mill Health Centre practice manager Julia Parsons
since 2003.
She also played waitress Sandra Gould in "Crossroads" during 1970-71, and the receptionist at the Feathers Hotel Connelton in Emmerdale
in 1972.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress.
Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
TV drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
Doctors which she has been in since 2003 (starring as Julia Parsons
Julia Parsons
Julia Parsons is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, played by Diane Keen. She made her first appearance on 13 January 2003...
), and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz
The Cuckoo Waltz
The Cuckoo Waltz was a British television sitcom made by Granada Television for the ITV network between 1975 and 1977 and in 1980.The series which was set in 1970s and Manchester, written by Geoffrey Lancashire, produced and directed by Bill Gilmour, dealt with the comic complications that ensue...
and Rings on Their Fingers
Rings On Their Fingers
Rings On Their Fingers is a British television sitcom, written by Richard Waring. It ran from October 1978 to November 1980.-Plot:It concerns a young unmarried couple played by Martin Jarvis and Diane Keen. Sandy wishes to marry whereas Oliver is happy to remain unmarried...
.
Personal life
Keen has one daughter, actress Melissa Greenwood, from her marriage with actor Paul GreenwoodPaul Greenwood
Paul Greenwood is a British film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as PC Michael "Rosie" Penrose in the successful sitcom Rosie direct spin-off from the short-lived sitcom The Growing Pains of PC Penrose...
(whom she married in 1969), star of the 1970s comedy series, Rosie
Rosie (TV series)
Rosie is a British situation-comedy television series, written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast between 1977 and 1981. It was filmed and set in Scarborough in North Yorkshire...
. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979, and a subsequent marriage to producer Neil Zeiger whom she married in 1981 also ended in divorce in 1993. She is the grandmother of Siena Pugsley who plays her on screen granddaughter Chloe in Doctors.
Career
Keen was a regular on TV during the 1970s and early 1980s, starring in sitcoms such as The Cuckoo WaltzThe Cuckoo Waltz
The Cuckoo Waltz was a British television sitcom made by Granada Television for the ITV network between 1975 and 1977 and in 1980.The series which was set in 1970s and Manchester, written by Geoffrey Lancashire, produced and directed by Bill Gilmour, dealt with the comic complications that ensue...
, Rings on Their Fingers
Rings On Their Fingers
Rings On Their Fingers is a British television sitcom, written by Richard Waring. It ran from October 1978 to November 1980.-Plot:It concerns a young unmarried couple played by Martin Jarvis and Diane Keen. Sandy wishes to marry whereas Oliver is happy to remain unmarried...
, Shillingbury Tales
Shillingbury Tales
Shillingbury Tales was a British television sitcom comedy-drama series made by ATV for ITV and broadcast 1980-81.Comprising a single feature length pilot and six one-hour episodes, the series deals with life in an idealised fictional English village and stars Robin Nedwell, Diane Keen, Nigel...
, Foxy Lady
Foxy Lady (TV series)
Foxy Lady was a television comedy series made between October 1982 and February 1984 by Granada Television. It was set in the 1960s and revolved around a young female reporter, Daisy Jackson , who worked for a newspaper and encountered sexism from her colleagues....
and You Must Be The Husband
You Must Be The Husband
You Must Be the Husband is a British comedy television series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor in the title role of Tom Hammond, and Diane Keen as his wife, Alice Hammond, with Sheila Steafel as Alice's literary agent, Miranda Shaw....
, and in two runs of a Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
children's historical costume drama The Feathered Serpent
The Feathered Serpent (UK TV series)
The Feathered Serpent is a British children's television series. Set in Aztec Mexico and starring former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton as the scheming High Priest Nasca, two series were made for ITV by Thames Television and transmitted in 1976 and 1978....
. She also appeared on The Morecambe and Wise Show and starred as Laura Dickens in the critically acclaimed spy drama The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers is a British television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage game on the personal and professional lives of British and...
. She also starred as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Fall of Eagles
Fall of Eagles
Fall of Eagles is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series was created by John Elliot and produced by Stuart Burge....
and appeared in the spin-off film of the 1970s detective drama, The Sweeney
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
.
In her early career she appeared full frontal nude in the 1973 British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sex comedy
Sex comedy
Sex comedy is a term for comedy movies with sexual content usually referring to those made in the United Kingdom in the mid 1970s. They may range from comic pornographic films like the Confessions series to relatively innocent comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humour,...
, The Sex Thief
The Sex Thief
The Sex Thief is a 1973 British sex film starring David Warbeck, Diane Keen and Christopher Biggins. It was an early film credit for director Martin Campbell....
.
She played Hilda in The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
series 1 episode Killer With a Long Arm, in 1978.
In 1980 she appeared as Christina, a widowed restaurant owner, in Series 1 episode The Dessert Song of Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
.
After spending much of the 1980s off screen, apart from a long-running series of advertisements for Nescafé
Nescafé
Nescafé is a brand of instant coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in the form of many different products. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé's flagship powdered coffee product was introduced in Switzerland on April 1, 1938 after being developed for seven or eight years...
coffee and an appearance in an episode of Taggart
Taggart
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
, in the next decade she became a regular in the Inspector Wexford
Inspector Wexford
Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford is a recurring character in a series of detective novels by English crime writer Ruth Rendell. He made his first appearance in the author's 1964 debut From Doon With Death, and has since been the protagonist of 20 more stories; his latest outing was the 2009...
series, playing the wife of Wexford's D.I. Roles in Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
and A Touch of Frost followed.
British Soaps
Keen has had her main soap role in BBC BirminghamBBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
's daytime soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Doctors, playing Mill Health Centre practice manager Julia Parsons
Julia Parsons
Julia Parsons is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, played by Diane Keen. She made her first appearance on 13 January 2003...
since 2003.
She also played waitress Sandra Gould in "Crossroads" during 1970-71, and the receptionist at the Feathers Hotel Connelton in Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
in 1972.
See also
- Julia ParsonsJulia ParsonsJulia Parsons is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, played by Diane Keen. She made her first appearance on 13 January 2003...
- BBC Drama VillageBBC Drama VillageThe BBC Drama Village is a television production facility run by the BBC. It is operated by their BBC Birmingham branch and based largely at the Selly Oak campus of the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England....
- BBC BirminghamBBC BirminghamBBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
- Doctors