Ann Coleman (née Beach; 7 June 1938 – 9 March 2017) was a British actress whose career across stage, screen, and radio spanned more than five decades. She was best known for her role as Sonia Barrett in the ITV sitcom Fresh Fields (1984–1986).

Early life and education

Ann Beach was born on 7 June 1938 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, the elder daughter of Claude Ripley Beach, a grocer, and his wife, Rebecca (née Startup). She had a younger sister. Her paternal grandfather, Albert Beach, served as the mayor of Wolverhampton. The family later relocated to Cardiff, Wales, where they opened an ice-cream parlour.

Showing early musical talent as a vocalist, Beach joined the renowned Snowflakes children's choir, which won the inaugural competition at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in 1947. While attending Cardiff High School for Girls, her teachers noted her immense promise as a singer. She received significant personal encouragement from Rae Jenkins, the principal conductor of the BBC Welsh Orchestra, who believed she possessed the talent to pursue a professional career as an opera singer.

Career

Training and early theatre (1954–1959)

Choosing drama over opera, Beach won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and moved to London alone aged 16, taking up lodgings in Shepherds Hill, Highgate. She graduated in 1957, winning the prestigious Anmer Hall Memorial Prize.

Beach made her professional stage debut in 1957 at the Streatham Hill Theatre, appearing as Paquerette in a touring production of Georges Feydeau's farce L'Hôtel du libre échange alongside Frankie Howerd. The following year, she made her West End debut at the Apollo Theatre playing the title role in Emlyn Williams's Beth, portraying a 16-year-old with a mental age of eight. Her performance earned critical praise from The Stage, which labelled her "an outstandingly good actress with a promise for the future."

Theatrical breakthrough and Left-Bank collaborations (1959–1969)

In 1959, Beach joined Joan Littlewood's nascent Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She quickly became a stalwart of the company, mixing creative chaos with sharp comedic timing. Her early roles with Littlewood included Young Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, Rosey in the premiere of Lionel Bart's musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, and Miss Gilchrist in Brendan Behan's play The Hostage, the latter of which successfully transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre. In 1960, she starred at the Cambridge Theatre as the orange-eating Barbara opposite Albert Finney in Billy Liar.

Beach balanced her time at Stratford East with work at the Royal Court Theatre, relishing the high-minded rigour of the latter. Her Royal Court appearances included Max Frisch's play The Fire Raisers with Colin Blakely and James Booth, and John Osborne's double-bill of plays, Plays for England (1961), directed by Lindsay Anderson. In 1962, she performed in Osborne's Under Plain Cover, directed by Jonathan Miller.

She returned to Stratford East in 1963 to join the ensemble of the seminal satirical musical Oh! What a Lovely War. That same year, she made her debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing as Hermione in Peter Hall's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1964, she returned to the Royal Court to play Shirley, the pregnant secretary and mistress to Nicol Williamson's loathsome lawyer Bill Maitland, in Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence, directed by Anthony Page. The production subsequently transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre. In 1966, she shared the stage with Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford at the Chichester Festival Theatre in a revival of The Clandestine Marriage.

Musical theatre and West End "glamour" shows

Though sometimes considered underused in musical theatre, her powerful singing voice secured her several notable West End musical roles. She played Hortense in a 1967 revival of Sandy Wilson's musical The Boy Friend at the Comedy Theatre, directed by Wilson himself. In 1969, she starred opposite Hollywood icon Ginger Rogers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the musical Mame. Playing the role of Agnes Gooch, another pregnant secretary, Beach stopped the show nightly with her rendition of "Gooch's Song," showcasing her operatic high notes.

In 1975, she returned to Stratford East for the musical Nickleby and Me. In 1980, she played the eccentric Broadway zany Letitia Primrose alongside Keith Michell and Julia McKenzie in On the Twentieth Century at Her Majesty's Theatre. Later stage roles included Peter Gibbs's Selling the Sizzle (Hampstead Theatre, 1986) and the pantomime Cinderella (Cliffs Pavilion in Southend, 1987).

Television, film, and radio

Beach compiled an expansive television portfolio. Her screen breakthrough came in 1961 as Brenda, part of the feisty all-female garment factory workforce in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade, starring alongside Barbara Windsor, Toni Palmer, Sheila Hancock, and Miriam Karlin.

Her most enduring television fame arrived in 1984 when she was cast as the nosy, eccentric neighbour Sonia Barrett in the ITV sitcom Fresh Fields, written by John Chapman and starring Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers. Characterised by her comedic catchphrase "It's only Sonia!", Beach played the role across the show's run until 1986, and later reprised the character as a guest star in the 1991 final episode of the expat-themed sequel, French Fields.

Her other television credits included playing Mrs Sowerberry in the 1982 adaptation of Oliver Twist (starring George C. Scott), as well as guest appearances in Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, and the medical drama Monroe.

Though she appeared in fewer feature films, Beach reprised her role as the pert maid in the 1966 cinematic adaptation of Hotel Paradiso, starring Alec Guinness and Gina Lollobrigida. She also appeared in the star-studded 1972 film adaptation of Dylan Thomas's radio drama Under Milk Wood. In 1999, she made a brief but memorable appearance as William Thacker's (Hugh Grant) mother in the romantic comedy Notting Hill.

Beach was a prolific radio actress, praising the medium for a team spirit that reminded her of her early repertory theatre days. She performed in countless BBC radio dramas over decades, including William Trevor's Solitude (2002). In 2012, she enjoyed a brief tenure on the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers, playing Joyce Walters, a tenant of Lilian Bellamy.

Later years

As theatre opportunities grew scarcer in her later career, Beach successfully transitioned into voice coaching and worked as a drama teacher at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. In private life, friends and colleagues frequently recalled her party trick: playing Frédéric Chopin's piece Minute Waltz on the piano while singing frantic, breathless self-penned lyrics.

Personal life

On 30 July 1966, Beach married the Canadian television producer Francis Coleman at the Hampstead Register Office. The couple had two daughters, Charlotte Coleman and Lisa Coleman, both of whom entered the acting profession. Charlotte, who achieved mainstream recognition for her role in Four Weddings and a Funeral, died from an asthma attack in November 2001. Her husband died in 2008.

Beach died on 9 March 2017 in Haringey, Greater London. She was 78.

Filmography

References

External links