Gretchen Franklin

Daughter of Herbert (1887-1954) and Violet (née Priestley) Franklin (1893-1915).

In 1929, she went to dance lessons at the Theatre Girls Club in Soho, London and became a noted tap dancer and founded a quartet called Four Brilliant Blondes.

Gretchen Franklin made her first screen appearance in the 1954 British suspense film Shadow of Fear (1955), directed by Albert S. Rogell, in which she acted alongside Mona Freeman, Jean Kent and Maxwell Reed.

During the 1960s and 70s she made her name through guest roles on various sit-coms, such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973) which starred Michael Crawford.

She also appeared on the BBC's The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968).

It was, however, with the BBC's EastEnders (1985) that she became a household name, as Ethel Skinner, at the age of 75.

As one of the original cast members in 1985, she stayed with the show until semi-retirement in 1993 - from then until 1997 she made three or four appearances in Christmas episodes or on special occasions.

In June 2000, at the age of 88, she was asked back to EastEnders to reprise her role, and declared that she was glad to be free of the boredom of retirement. She once said of herself: "I can play the comedy scenes or the tearjerkers. The directors and producers have realised that. " Off screen she devoted much of her time to charity work, giving away the royalties from international syndication of EastEnders to charities that are "all for animals or old people".

As of 2020 she is the 10th-longest serving actress on the history of EastEnders (1985) (tied with Patsy Palmer, Lacey Turner, Lorna Fitzgerald and Shona McGarty, and behind only June Brown, Pam St. Clement, Letitia Dean, Wendy Richard, a tied Gillian Taylforth and Natalie Cassidy, a tied Barbara Windsor and Laila Morse, Gillian Wright, a tied Diane Parish and Linda Henry, and Jessie Wallace), having played the character Ethel Skinner for 12 years (from 1985 until 1997 and then briefly in 2000).