Introduction
Patricia Byrne (13 July 1933 – 17 June 2014) was an English actress, best known for her role as "Nursie" in Blackadder II as well as Malcolm's domineering mother in the ITV comedy series Watching.
Biography
Byrne was educated at Ashford County Grammar School. She studied drama at Rose Bruford College before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company playing parts such as Maria in Twelfth Night and Gruscha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Aldwych Theatre in the early 1960s. In the 1980s she also worked at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Byrne starred alongside Tony Robinson in a Series 3 episode of Maid Marian and her Merry Men. She played Betty the Tea Lady on the BBC children's programme Playdays. Other roles included appearances in I, Claudius (1976), Stealing Heaven (1988), Inspector Morse (1989), Les Misérables (1998), David Copperfield (1999) and Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000), as well as numerous radio plays.Byrne performed in the 1990 BBC production of C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair as the giant nanny in the city of the giants.
Death
Byrne died at Denville Hall, a retirement home for performers, on 17 June 2014.