Patsy Byrne

Patricia "Patsy" Byrne (13 July 1933 – 17 June 2014) was an English actress, best known for her role as "Nursie" in Blackadder II.

Byrne was educated at Ashford School for Girls. 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.

She was known for playing round, jolly, often dotty old women like "Nursie". She again starred alongside Tony Robinson in a Series 3 episode of Maid Marian and her Merry Men.

She played ORD "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.

Death

Byrne died at Denville Hall, a retirement home for performers, on 17 June 2014.

Selected filmography

• The Ruling Class (1972)
• The Silver Chair (1990)
• The Treasure Seekers (1996)