Gudrun Ure obituary: Super Gran star with no time for Orson Welles (2024)

There was a certain tartan-clad octogenarian that no one messed with in the 1980s.

As a vulnerable old lady shambling across a park with a bent back, Granny Smith (Gudrun Ure) is struck by a magic beam and transformed into Super Gran. She is soon vaulting into buildings, riding through the air on her “flycycle” and speeding around the town of Chistleton on her quad bike to foil the evil plots of her arch enemy, the Scunner Campbell.

With her wispy hair swept up under a tam o’ shanter, tartan togs and red bloomers, Ure’s alter ego became a children’s TV favourite between 1985 and 1987. The first series won an International Emmy and captivated millions of Chinese children.

As a young actress in the early 1950s, Ure had survived being directed by a tyrannical Orson Welles but her career was winding down before she was struck by that magic beam. “Once I put on that tam o’ shanter the magic starts to work,” she told the Daily Star in 1987. So much so that the petite Scot — who was 58 when the first episode was broadcast — performed all her own stunts, including being suspended from a crane and bouncing on a trampoline for the jumps. “Luckily, I’m not afraid of heights. Once I’m in costume I believe I can do anything.” This included in one episode giving George Best a lesson in football (if not drinking).

Based on the books by Forrest Wilson, Super Gran attracted a roster of guest stars including Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Cribbins and Spike Milligan. Billy Connolly appeared as Angus McSporran, whose attempts to serenade Super Gran by playing the bagpipes beneath her bedroom window were rewarded with a bowl of porridge on the bonce.

The Tyne Tees series was sold to 60 countries and was one of the first western shows to be bought by Chinese television.

Connolly’s rendition of the theme tune was also released as a single. “Stand back Superman, Iceman, Spiderman, Batman and Robin too,” he sang. “She makes them look like a bunch of fairies, she’s got more bottle than United Dairies. Hang about, look out, for Super Gran!”

Gudrun Ure was born in Milton of Campsie, now East Dunbartonshire, in 1926 to Lily and Allan Ure. Her father was a draughtsman who became an iron founder. She attended Laurel Bank School for girls in the west end of Glasgow and grew up in Hyndland. Her younger cousin, Mary Ure, followed her into an acting career.

As a schoolgirl in the late 1930s she became a regular on The Children’s Hour, which was broadcast from the BBC in Glasgow. One of her young colleagues was Iain Cuthbertson, who would go on to play Super Gran’s nemesis. Ure endured what she later described as “a brief and agonising career as a schoolteacher” before joining the Citizens Theatre, where she learnt her craft.

Stints in repertory theatre in England followed, before her West End debut as Desdemona in a 1951 production of Othello at St James’s Theatre, directed by Welles, who played the title role. Welles instructed his cast, “Act, you sons of bitches!” after only joining them on stage during the final week of the chaotic rehearsals. A week before Othello was due to open, he disappeared for four days to attend a party in Venice.

“He drank a bottle of brandy a day, he had a massage in between shows and he drank champagne during the intervals,” Ure recalled. “When he came on stage he would click his fingers at you and talk at you. He was very frightening.”

During the 12-week run she was nearly strangled eight times a week. During one performance Welles banged her head against a wall so forcefully that audience members protested. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she took “a two-month rest-cure” after Othello closed. She was also brought in to redub some of Suzanne Cloutier’s lines as Desdemona in Welles’s film of the play.

Ure fared better with Gregory Peck in The Million Pound Note (1954). He nicknamed her “Peaches” and was, she said, “a sweetie”. Her run of 1950s film outings also included the popular comedy Doctor in the House (1954), in which she played Donald Sinden’s girlfriend.

In 1964 she married John Ramsay, a garage proprietor. He died in 2008 and Ure is survived by her stepson, Gordon. She continued to work into the early 2000s, notably in the 1990 TV film Life After Life, with George Cole and Leslie Phillips, and in episodes of The Crow Road, Midsomer Murders and Casualty.

Nothing surpassed Super Gran and there had recently been talk of a film version. Some even hoped that Ure would reprise the role. Nothing surpassed Super Gran. There had recently been talk of reviving the character in a film version, but at 98 Ure had hung up her tam o’ shanter for good.

Gudrun Ure, actress, was born on March 12, 1926. She died on May 14, 2024, aged 98