Harrowing death of one of Britain’s most famous comedians – penniless and in psychiatric hospital

She was one of the biggest names in British comedy and lived the lifestyle to match but this icon of the stage and screen died “forgotten and penniless”

During her prime, she was one of the most famous comedians in the country – making people laugh and was one of the most recognisable faces on television.

But Hylda Baker’s life ended in tragedy. She died in a psychiatric hospital, battling Alzheimer’s disease after a lifetime on the stage and screen.

Born in Farnworth, in what was then Lancashire, in 1905 Hylda’s route to stardom started when she was just 10 when she appeared at the Opera House in Tunbridge Wells as part of a variety act, where she sang, danced and was expert at impressions.

By the time she was 14, Hylda was already writing, producing and starring in her own shows. Her characters included a gossip from the North of England along with her almost silent friend, who was known only as Big Cynthia and who was almost always played by a man in drag, something revolutionary at the time.

Hylda quickly established the catchphrases that would come to define her professional life, including “she knows, y’know” and ‘”it’s quarter past, I must get a little hand put on this watch”.

Finally, in 1955 she was unleashed onto the silver screen and into the national consciousness, appearing in The Good Old Days on the BBC. The audience couldn’t get enough of her and by 1960, Hylda had her own TV show, Our House, with The Best of Friends quickly following in 1963.

It wasn’t long before the world of film came calling for her immense talent and she started in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning in 1960, Up The Junction in 1968 and played the iconic Mrs Sowerby in the musical, Oliver.

However, her biggest role, and the one that shot her to huge fame, was still to come. When she was cast as Nellie Pledge in Nearest and Dearest, there was no one in Britain who didn’t know Hylda Baker’s name. The hit series was based around the love/hate relationship Nellie had with her brother, Eli, played by Jimmy Jewel as the siblings tried to run the family business of Pledge’s Purer Pickles.

Behind the scenes, it seems the animosity was real and the pair were said to intensely dislike each other but this didn’t stop the success of the show, which went on to be turned into a film.

Filming the series also highlighted the first of Hylda’s problems – she was struggling to remember her lines and often had to rely on cue cards or help from her co-star Madge Hindle, who would frantically whisper them to her.

A spin-off show followed in 1974, Not On Your Nellie, which featured an almost identical character to the one she had played in Nearest and Dearest, but the show ran into trouble.

A struggling Hylda was not only having issues remembering her lines but had also started to refuse to make it to rehearsals and eventually, it was cancelled. The final straw came when Hylda broke her leg on set when she slipped on a beer mat and sued the production company. Not On Your Nellie was cancelled soon after, along with Hylda’s television career.

But life in the limelight wasn’t quite over for the woman who had been the UK’s favourite comedian. In 1978, aged 73, she teamed up with Arthur Mullard to record a tongue-in-cheek version of You’re The One That I Want from the hit film, Grease, and made famous by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

The pair appeared on Top of the Pops and the song reached number 22 in the charts. An album of comedy covers of pop songs followed.

The last time Hylda was seen on screen was in 1978 when she appeared in the BBC arts documentary series, Omnibus.

Her personal life was no less dramatic than the life she had led on screen. She married Ben Pearson in 1929 but after two devastating ectopic pregnancies, the couple separated un 1933.

In a horrifying accident on Christmas Eve, 1961, Hylda was hit by a car on Charing Cross Road in London, close to her home on Bloomsbury. She suffered a broken toe and was badly bruised and the comedian and actress claimed it left her unable to work for more than six months and had left her unable to walk properly.

She sued the driver of the car and was awarded £4,000, the equivalent to almost £100,000 today.

There was more heartbreak for the start in 1971 when her chauffeur, Noel Moncaster, fled with £2,500, around £40,000 today, of her money and even though he was arrested just three months later just £45 was left. He had used the cash to fund luxury jaunts to France, Spain and Africa.

During his trial, Muncaster was ordered to pay Hylda just £400.

A star by profession and a star in her real life, the comedian loved to wear furs and even kept monkeys as pets. She infuriated neighbours who lived close to her in Blackpool with raucous parties.

After showing early signs of Alzheimer’s back in the 1960s, when she struggled to remember her lines, Hylda was finally diagnosed in 1981 at the age of 76. She was initially moved into Brinsworth House, in Twickenham, London, which is a specialist home for retired performers.

However, just two years later she was moved to a psychiatric hospital in Surrey where she died, penniless, in 1986 from bronchial pneumonia.

Despite her fame and success, she tragically spent her last years penniless and “lonely and forgotten”, according to Pride of Manchester, with fewer than 10 people reported to have attended her funeral.