TA-RA JEAN
Bread legend Jean Boht’s incredible rise from £1-a-week trainee to one of TV’s most famous matriarchs
SHE won millions of fans and had the nation in stitches as Nellie “Ma” Boswell in hit Eighties sitcom Bread.
Jean Boht, who won a British Comedy Award for her portrayal of the acid-tongued matriarch, has died at the age of 91, having battled dementia.
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Yesterday, her family announced she had passed away on Tuesday at the prestigious actors’ retirement home Denville Hall in north-west London — just six weeks after her composer husband Carl Davis.
Jean was an accomplished theatre actress who also had television roles in Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, Last Of The Summer Wine and Boys From The Blackstuff.
Treading the boards, she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sean Connery, Cilla Black, Jeremy Irons, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
But it was her role as Nellie in the BBC show centred on a working-class family in inner-city Liverpool that made her a household name.
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Such was her fame, Jean featured on a 1989 episode of This Is Your Life, with host Michael Aspel charting her rise.
First airing in May 1986, Bread saw Nellie run her family’s lives with an iron fist — while trying to keep her straying husband away from love rival “Lilo Lil”, who she often referred to as a “tart”.
Over eight series, viewers fell in love with Nellie, errant husband Freddie, played by Liverpudlian Ronald Forfar, and their five kids, who included glam daughter Aveline, dreamer poet Adrian and leather-trousered, Jaguar-driving eldest lad, Joey.
When Aveline married a vicar in 1988 the episode 21 million viewers watched — more than the UK audience for the 2010 World Cup final.
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The programme became synonymous with a ceramic hen shown in the title scene, in which Nellie stored her children’s housekeeping contributions.
Written by Carla Lane, the sitcom was so political the BBC refused to broadcast it on the eve of the General Election in 1987.
Despite its popularity, the series was criticised for mocking Liverpudlians after the city suffered an economic downturn that left one in five jobless in the mid-Eighties.
But writer Lane said Nellie and her family were not created to pass social comment on the city.
After the programme came to an end in November 1991, Boht toured Britain in the stage version, Bread — The Final Slice.
Despite Bread’s popularity, Jean said she never tuned in when it aired.
She said in 2012: “I never watched it at the time, it’s too horrendous for actors to see themselves on screen so I had no idea what it looked like.
“But now when I catch it, I am just astounded by how good it was and how very funny.
“I can understand why the public liked it so much.
"But then there were such a lot of lovely shows and characters around then.”
Yesterday tributes poured in. Playwright Jonathan Harvey praised Jean’s “memorable” turn in Bread.
The City Council in Liverpool, where Jean started her career, called her a “brilliant actor” and “fabulous advocate” for the arts.
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic said it was “deeply saddened” to hear of Jean’s death.
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Born in Bebington on the Wirral, as a child Jean was inspired by dad Thomas Dance, a confectionery importer who was also chief entertainment officer for the local fire brigade.
An amateur actor, magician and piano player, Thomas, along with Jean’s piano player mum Edna — known as Teddy — and sister Maureen formed a troupe putting on shows at camps and hospitals during the wartime blitz.
Jean began her stage career as a £1-a-week student at the Liverpool Playhouse and went on to star at the Bristol Old Vic, Royal Court and National Theatre.
She married Bill Boht, the boss of the Ritz cinema and theatre in Birkenhead — dubbed the “showcase of the north” — in 1954 but their marriage crumbled.
She later said: “He was a heavy drinker and I thought if I married him I could look after him.”
Shortly after their official split in 1970, she married American-British conductor and composer Carl Davis, who worked on the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
The couple have two daughters, Hannah and Jessie, who both work in film, and three grandchildren.
They were both executive producers on Hannah’s film The Understudy, about a struggling actress, which was shown at the Avignon Film Festival in 2008.
Carl died aged 86 on August 3 following a brain haemorrhage.
Announcing Jean’s death, her family said she had been battling vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease with “the indefatigable spirit for which she was both beloved and renowned”.
The charity Dementia UK praised them for talking about her illness.
They said: “We’re sorry to hear that Jean Boht has died having lived with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia for several years, and send our condolences to her family.
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“By discussing Jean’s experiences publicly, her family will help raise awareness for dementia and Alzheimer’s, encouraging them to seek the support they need for this condition.
“We are grateful for their honesty and hope they are receiving the support they need at this difficult time.”
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