If Margaret Rutherford was the female equivalent of a galleon in full sail, Peggy Mount was the Bismarck. In the films she made she was a brilliant presence thrashing her way through her surroundings with all the subtlety of a brickworks. Best of all was her turn in excellent and underrated The Naked Truth, desperately trying to purloin a Mickey Finn to deal with blackmailer Dennis Price and completely eclipsing co-star Peter Sellers in the process; no mean feat. Hotel Paradiso and Oliver! make hers a career worth looking at a bit more closely. Especially for the salient fact that she was brilliant at what she did.
FINEST HOUR: Thundering into a low tavern in The Naked Truth, forgetting to drop the jolly hockey sticks persona and suddenly coming across like a giant scrubber, a masterpiece in moments. “Gin and lime please! Erm…port and lemon.”
