Entertainer Betty Astell retired to Torquay with husband Cyril Fletcher and their beloved dogs

Significant people who lived with in Torbay in the 20th century, not always famous, by Ian Handford, president of Torbay Civic Society. This week, Elizabeth Julia Astell (Mrs Betty Fletcher):

Born in North West London on May 23, 1912, Elizabeth Julia Astell (later Fletcher) was to become a competent singer, dancer, writer and wife of the 'odes' man Cyril Fletcher.

From age 12, she sang for BBC Radio before training as a dancer and becoming one of the first to ever perform on BBC's new medium of television.

At 16, Elizabeth - now Betty - made her debut on a West End stage by performing in the play, Escape, by John Galsworthy.

Between 1929 until 1932, she regularly appeared on stage until, in 1932, her first film, A Tight Corner, with actor Frank Pettingell.

Throughout the 1930s she was a regular on BBC black-and-white television and more often than not, wore a black satin dress with white spots which became her trademark.

With the Baird Company transmitting 30-minute spots 'on-line' from Broadcasting House these always included 20-year-old Betty Astell starring with the famous of the era like Fred Douglas, Louie Freear and Betty Bolton.

She even appeared in Saville Theatre's first musical, For the Love of Mike, which ran for 230 performances.

Betty had an attractive figure and shapely legs and was popular on stage as well as radio. When pursued by the infant film industry, she was cast in a screen production titled Double Dealing, again with Pettingell before This is the Life and That’s My Wife and, finally, Strike it Rich in 1933.

Now television lured her back to its first TV pantomime, Dick Whittington, and she remained until 1936 when 'high-definition TV tests' using 405 lines began.

The first pioneering transmissions went out from Alexandra Palace while again Betty was pursued this time by cinema, for Behind Your Back, opposite the great Jack Livesay and Dinah Sheridan, before appearing with Will Fyffe in Mind of Mr Reeder.

In 1940, she met her future husband Cyril Fletcher while at a charity concert at Colston Hall, Bristol.

They met again when Cyril was completing a recording of Henry Hall’s Guest Night for BBC, being by now one of the early comedians on radio.

With TV producers chasing Cyril, he forever kept his options open maybe just preferring radio, yet these meetings led to marriage with Betty.

Their first child, Jill, was born in 1945 and, like her parents, she became an actress and a comedienne.

With her father a regular on radio, he would eventually appear on television having developed a unique 'ode' act as part of his routine. No-one has ever mastered or copied 'odes'.

As a competent writer, Betty joined her husband in publishing and even performed with him on stage. They wrote scripts together which led to them having an entertainment agency.

Radio audiences enjoyed the duo with their Odes and Ends, Thanking Yew and even Thanking Yew Tew shows, often performed when on tour.

Now they appeared in numerous shows together like Firth Shepherd’s Magic Carpet and Keep Going - which Betty wrote and produced.

They starred in films like A Piece of Cake before after 20 years, Betty finally joined Cyril on TV and in famous shows Fletcher’s Summer Show and Masquerade performed at resorts like Hastings, Scarborough and eventually Torquay.

Summer Masquerade was then performed on the Isle of Wight in 1949 and for the first time, Jill co-starred.

By the 1970s Betty had appeared in 24 films and an unknown number of stage and pantomime shows continuing on radio and television.

But now in preferring to tend to her home and beloved dogs, this finally brought retirement in Torquay. in the early 1980s.

Wanting a large garden, they soon moved on to St Peter Port in Guernsey where in January 2005, Cyril died and seven months later, on July 27, Betty Astell was also lost to us.

A copy of an article about Betty Fletcher is still available by sending two first class stamps and a small stamped addressed envelope to Torbay Civic Society, Suite 1, The Business Centre, 4 Palace Avenue, Paignton TQ3 3HA.

IAN'S COMMENT: An amazing actress and writer virtually lost to us in time due to the more dominant career of her husband. NEXT WEEK: Percy H Fawcett