Product Code Database
Isabel Mary Sugden (21 July 19221 July 2009), known professionally as Mollie Sugden was an English actress and comedienne. She was best known for being an original cast member in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? (1972–1985) as senior saleswoman Mrs. Slocombe and appeared reprising the character in the AYBS spin-off Grace & Favour (1992–1993).
She also played Nellie Harvey in Coronation Street (1965–1976), Mrs Hutchinson in The Liver Birds (1971–1996), Ida Willis in That's My Boy (1981–1986) and Nora Powers in My Husband and I (1987–1988).
In 1973, she appeared in Son of the Bride.
Meanwhile, aged 50 she was cast in a role which brought her international fame: Mrs Slocombe, a department store saleswoman with a socially superior attitude, a repertoire of double entendres, and a penchant for bouffant, pastel-coloured coiffures, in the long-running Are You Being Served? (1972–1985). In 1978, she was the lead star in Come Back Mrs. Noah, a sitcom that is regarded by some as one of the worst ever made. From 1965 to 1976, she intermittently played Nellie Harvey, the landlady of The Laughing Donkey pub, in Coronation Street. In this she often appeared opposite Annie Walker, landlady of the Rovers Return. In 1986, she had a 23-week stint on That's Life!
Sugden also played main roles in other sitcoms, including That's My Boy (1981–1986) and My Husband and I (1987–1988), both for ITV. In an unsuccessful revival of The Liver Birds (1996), Sugden reprised her role as Mrs Hutchinson, despite being on Corticosteroid as treatment for polymyalgia.
She played opposite her husband, William Moore (1916–2000), in several series, including two episodes of The Liver Birds and again in My Husband and I, on both occasions as a married couple. They married on 29 March 1958, having met while in repertory theatre in Swansea, and had twin sons born in October 1963, Robin and Simon. She had five grandchildren.General Register Office – Index of Births registered in October, November, December 1963
In 2002, a tribute programme called Celebrating Mollie Sugden: An Are You Being Served? Special, aired on American PBS stations featuring several members of the cast of Are You Being Served?
Sugden died on 1 July 2009, age 86, at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, Surrey of unspecified heart failure and was cremated. Her final public appearance had been at the funeral of her Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard nearly four months earlier.
| Voice |
| Voice; final film role |
| TV film |
| Episode: "Killer in the Band" |
| 33 episodes |
| Episode: "The Time Bicycle" |
| Episode: "Maggie" |
| Episode: "Ring Round the Moon" |
| 9 episodes |
| 23 episodes |
| Episode: "And Afterwards At..." |
| Episode: "I Am Osango" |
| 2 episodes |
| Episode: "Only Four Can Play" |
| 2 episodes |
| Episode: "How Are You Feeling?" |
| Episode: "Anne of Cleves" |
| Episode: "Battle of the Bulge" |
| Episode: "The Love Potion" |
| TV film |
| TV film |
| Episode: "Caught in the Act" |
| 49 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| Episode: "What's a Class Between Friends?" |
| 2 episodes |
| Episode: "Born Every Minute" |
| Episode: "Oh, What a Beautiful Mourning" |
| Episode: "A Private Nuisance" |
| 3 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| 69 episodes |
| Episode: "Guess Who's Coming to Lunch?" |
| Episode: "Total Separation" |
| Episode: "The Lady with the Lamp" |
| 6 episodes |
| Episode: "Billy and the Party Spirit" |
| Episode: "The Antenatal Clinic" |
| TV film |
| Episode: "Silver Threads" |
| Episode: "Bobby Bluesocks" |
| TV film |
| Episode: #15.8 |
| 6 episodes |
| Voice; TV film |
| TV pilot |
| 37 episodes |
| 9 episodes |
| 15 episodes |
| 6 episodes |
| 12 episodes |
| Episode: "Why Did We Eat the Frogs?" |
| Episode: "Boys Will Be Boys" |
| Voice; Episode: "Special Agent Dennis" |
| Voice; Episode: "Knitting Patterns" |
| Episode: #1.0 |
| Episode: "Professional Image" |
| Series 1, Episode 8 |
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