Penelope Keith – The Good Life and To the Manor Born legend – dies, aged 86

Dame Penelope Keith has died at the age of 86, her family has confirmed.

The actress, who was best known for starring in sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born, passed away “peacefully” at her Surrey home.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Dame Penelope Keith died peacefully whilst living with cancer at her home in Surrey where she had lived for more than 50 years,” her family said in a statement.

“The family is grateful for the care and support she received throughout her treatments, and ask that their privacy be respected at this time.”

Keith had lived at her home Mousehill Manor, in Milford, Surrey, since 1978, sharing it with her husband, Rodney Timson, and their two children.

Born on 2 April 1940 in Sutton, Surrey, Keith rose to fame in the 1960s on the stage.

She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963, performing in several productions in London and Stratford including The Wars of the Roses.

She later transitioned to a TV career, appearing in the likes of Dixon of Dock Green and the military sitcom The Army Game.

But the role that made her a household name came in 1975 when she bagged the part of the snobby suburbanite Margo Leadbetter in the hit BBC sitcom The Good Life.

The part went on to earn her a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performer in 1977.

Keith also starred in hit comedy To the Manor Born, in which she played the lead role of bereaved aristocrat Audrey fforbes-Hamilton from 1979 to 1981.

“I loved it because we had to do all our own stunts,” Keith said in an interview with The Guardian in 2013.

She added: “I am a country girl at heart, and I got to ride horses again, to learn about bee keeping, to drive a two-tonne Rolls-Royce with impossible gears; I scaled a five-bar gate with a picnic hamper to flee a bull. The worst part was the cold.”