🔥 Judy Cornwell Channels Marlene Dietrich! | Stockings and Suspenders | Moody & Pegg (1975)

Long before she became Daisy in Keeping Up Appearances, the wonderful Judy Cornwell was proving that she could be rather more daring than Hyacinth Bucket would ever have approved of! 😄🔥 This wonderfully cheeky scene comes from Moody and Pegg — Series 2, Episode 3, “Daphne and Roland – At Home”, with Judy starring as Daphne Pegg alongside Derek Waring as Roland Moody. The episode was first shown on ITV on 7 August 1975. Roland is feeling thoroughly sorry for himself, his love life is in a mess, and somehow the conversation turns to what exactly men find attractive. Dangerous territory, Roland. Very dangerous territory. 😂 Before long Daphne decides to investigate the matter in her own wonderfully practical fashion — and suddenly Judy appears transformed into a sexy maid channelling Marlene Dietrich, complete with stockings and suspenders, before treating Roland to a rather unexpected song and dance. It’s one of those glorious moments of 1970s television where a perfectly respectable comedy-drama suddenly seems to announce: “Right, that’s enough character development — bring on the stockings!” 😄🔥 And Judy throws herself into it brilliantly. There’s something especially funny about seeing the actress so many of us later knew as the warm, slightly dowdy Daisy revealing a very different side — playful, glamorous and more than capable of leaving poor Roland wondering quite what has just happened. The episode itself finds both Daphne and Roland confronting frustrations in their romantic lives, with Daphne trying to understand what men actually want while Roland wallows in his own problems. A contemporary retrospective notes that Roland’s talk of a woman dressing as a French maid prompts Daphne to challenge his ideas about male fantasy — with predictably disastrous comic results. 🌹 A Little About Judy Cornwell Born Judy Valerie Cornwell in Hammersmith, London, in 1940, Judy enjoyed an extraordinarily varied career stretching across theatre, film and television. She actually began as a professional dancer and comedienne, having spent part of her childhood in Australia before returning to Britain. Her early career included performing in revue and cabaret before moving into acting — which perhaps explains why Daphne’s little dance routine looks rather more assured than you might expect! Judy became part of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and appeared in the original London production of the groundbreaking Oh! What a Lovely War in 1963. She later worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and built up an extensive television and film résumé. Her screen appearances included Two for the Road (1967) with Audrey Hepburn, Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Doctor Who, Rumpole of the Bailey and, of course, Moody and Pegg, in which she played Daphne throughout both series. But the role that made Judy familiar to millions arrived in 1990, when she was cast as Daisy, the cheerfully romantic sister of Patricia Routledge’s formidable Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances. Judy stayed with the enormously popular sitcom throughout its five-series run. She’s also an accomplished author, having written several novels as well as her wonderfully titled memoir Adventures of a Jelly Baby, which recounts everything from her childhood and early dancing career to decades spent on stage and screen. Warm, funny and enormously versatile, Judy Cornwell has always been far more than Daisy. And if anyone still doubts that… just show them Daphne, the maid outfit and those suspenders. 😉🔥 🍿 Subscribe to The Saucy Retro Picture Show for more forgotten television gems, gorgeous stars and wonderfully cheeky moments from classic British film and TV. #JudyCornwell #MoodyAndPegg #DerekWaring #KeepingUpAppearances #1970sTV #BritishComedy #VintageGlamour #Stockings #ClassicTV #TheSaucyRetroPictureShow