Express breaks news of actress's death... just 40 years late

‘One of UK’s biggest TV stars died in psychiatric hospital lonely and forgotten,’ ran a headline in the Daily Express this week, as it broke what it described as the “heartbreaking” news that “one of Britain’s most recognisable faces” had passed away.

“She ranked among the most celebrated comedians in the nation – bringing joy to audiences and becoming one of the most instantly recognisable faces on British television,” mourned hack Jane Lavender. “There wasn’t a person in Britain unfamiliar with Hylda Baker’s name.”

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But even Express readers – who tend to be among the most seasoned of all national newspaper readers – may be forgiven for being a tad unfamiliar with Baker, given that she had been out of the public eye in recent years.

While Lavender described how she was famed for her catchphrases – “she knows, y’know” and “it’s quarter past, I must get a little hand put on this watch” – the actress was said to be best known for her role in Nearest and Dearest (“the one that propelled her to enormous stardom”). Nearest and Dearest is a little-remembered Granada TV sitcom about a family pickle business which ended in 1973.

She later, as the Express reported, “joined forces with Arthur Mullard to record a tongue-in-cheek rendition of You’re The One That I Want from the smash-hit film Grease, originally made famous by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John”. The single reached number 22 in the charts.

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“Hylda’s final television appearance came in 1978 when she featured in the BBC arts documentary series Omnibus,” Lavender concluded.

But while it’s a sad story – Baker died of bronchial pneumonia, having struggled late in life with Alzheimer’s – what’s most peculiar, and never explained, is quite why the Express is reporting her death now. Hylda Baker died in 1986.