RITA IS THE
NICEST HAG
IN THE BUSINESS!
By Susie Cook
RITA
WEBB was waiting for me at the gate of her terraced house in Bayswater, London,
and passing the time of day with a neighbour.
I could tell it was her from half a mile away. The damson-coloured hair, crowning
4ft 6in of curves that had given in disgracefully, and the fair sprinkling of
"bloodys," could not have belonged to anyone else.
Rita Webb
"We go fishing"
"Hello,
darlin'" she wheezed, bright red mouth beaming a motherly welcome.
As I followed her shuffling bedroom slippers into the kitchen, we were already
friends. Rita, described by one TV producer as "an incredible hag."
Is a lovely lady.
HAPPY
But she has made a speciality ofgin-soaked, fag-end types, like the character
she plays in Till Death Us Do Part (BBC1, 9.25).
Settling me in a chair, with a biscuit and a cup of tea, she kicked off her
slippers, and told me how she was almost in tears after one week with the Till
Death team. "They were so bloody good to me," she said. "I've
never been so happy as working with that crowd." Then Rita turned on her
posh telephone voice "Yew know," she said, 2ai started in drama,"
then back to the cockney voice we know "but all I pay now is bloody old
cows!"
REINS
Though Rita might be a hag to some people, to al Jeffery, her husband for 33
years, she is his affectionate "Podge." "He never wants to go
anywhere without me because we love each other, and I hold him with reins of
elastic," she said. "And when we've got time, we go off fishing, holding
hands and singing songs in the car."
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THE SUN Wednesday September 27th
1972
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