Janet Kathleen Davies was an English

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.

Davies's father, a solicitor, died in his early thirties, and as a result she was sent to boarding school. She started training as a solicitor but left and qualified as a shorthand typist instead. She worked as a secretary at the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 for two years, assigned to programmes including Dick Barton

Dick Barton

Dick Barton - Special Agent was a popular radio programme on the BBC Light Programme. Between 1946 to 1951 it aired at 6.45 each weekday evening and at its peak it had an audience of 15 million listeners. Despite popular belief, it was not actually the BBC's first daily serial...

before eventually moving into repertory

Repertory

Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...

 in 1948, appearing at Leatherhead

Leatherhead

Leatherhead is a town in the County of Surrey, England, on the River Mole, part of Mole Valley district. It is thought to be of Saxon origin...

, Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

, Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

, Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

 and Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

.

She is mainly remembered for her role as Mrs. Pike in the television series Dad's Army

Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

. She also featured in a number of television and film roles including Dixon of Dock Green

Dixon of Dock Green

Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...

, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a series of novels which developed into a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role...

, All Creatures Great and Small, Z-Cars

Z-Cars

Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...

, The Citadel

The Citadel (TV series)

The Citadel is a 1983 BBC television adaptation written by Don Shaw from A. J. Cronin's novel The Citadel, which was originally published in 1937. It was produced by Ken Riddington. Other television versions include a British and two Italian adaptations.The BBC dramatisation stars Ben Cross as...

, as well as in the 1972 film Under Milk Wood

Under Milk Wood (film)

Under Milk Wood is a 1972 British film directed by Andrew Sinclair and based on the radio play Under Milk Wood by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas. It starred Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole. Like the book it portrays the inhabitants of a small Welsh village Llareggub....

. Davies was upset that she did not appear in the 1971 film version of Dad’s Army

Dad's Army (film)

Dad's Army is a 1971 feature film based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Directed by Norman Cohen, it was filmed between series three and four and was based upon material from the early episodes of the television series...

(in which her character was played by Liz Fraser

Liz Fraser

Liz Fraser is an English actress, mainly in comedy roles.- Life and career :Her birthdate is usually attributed as 1933, the year she gave when auditioning for her role in I'm All Right Jack, as the Boulting Brothers wanted someone younger for the part...

).

When she wasn't acting, Davies exploited her typing and shorthand training by working with various theatrical agencies. Nearing the end of her life, she became notable for making generous donations to various parish charities, earning for herself the title "generous Janet" . She was married to the actor Ian Gardiner, who was best known for having played Reginald Molehusband

Reginald Molehusband

Reginald Molehusband was a fictional character who starred in a public information film, shown on British TV during the 1960s. The role of Molehusband was played by Ian Gardiner....

 in a Central Office of Information

Central Office of Information

The Central Office of Information is the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its Chief Executive, currently Mark Lund, reports to the Minister for the Cabinet Office...

 public information film

Public information film

Public Information Films are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the UK. The US equivalent is the Public Service Announcement .-Subjects:...

 in the 1960s.

She died of cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

.

External links