Tributes flow for actress Daphne (From Messenger Newspapers)

Tributes flow for actress Daphne

10:33am Friday 11th January 2013 in News By Rick Bowen

DAPHNE Oxenford, the actress and former Altrincham resident who delighted generations of children on the iconic BBC radio programme Listen With Mother, has died.

She was a storyteller on the show more than 20 years and her long and distinguished career included working with showbiz greats like Dick Emery, Les Dawson and Joyce Grenfell.

Daphne, who lived at The Close on Wainwright Road, Altrincham, for 50 years, died on December 21 at the age of 93. She had been living at a retirement home in Middlesex for the acting profession, for nearly 10 years, since the death of her husband, David.

Sophie Marshall, one of Daphne’s two daughters and a former casting director at the Royal Exchange Theatre paid tribute to her mother.

She said: “She was fun, talented, generous, passionate about crosswords and the theatrical profession, keen on opera and visiting National Trust properties and gardens.”

A Londoner by birth, Daphne was one of the original cast members of Coronation Street, playing the role of Esther Hayes between 1960 and 1962.

Sophie said she was “very proud” to see her acting on stage and she saw her in productions at the Royal Exchange and the Library Theatre in Manchester, as well as the West End.

Roger Haines remembers fondly directing Daphne in a production of On Golden Pond at the Library Theatre and paid her a glowing tribute.

He said: “I worked with Daphne in 1992, when she played opposite Willoughby Gray in that wonderful play about getting older, On Golden Pond. She was a terrific actress, with great dignity, and was also one of the loveliest. We all had such fun on the play and I learnt a great deal from working with her.”

Daphne’s funeral will take place at Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip on Friday (January 11) and she is survived by her daughters, Sophie and Kate, son-in-law David and grandsons Michael and James.