Doreen Mantle obituary

Actor who won an Olivier award in 1979 and became famous as Mrs Warboys in the TV sitcom One Foot In The Grave.

How Doreen Mantle made Mrs Warboys - a woman who could bore for England - such a joy

Victor Meldrew's foil and frenemy was perhaps the most tedious and annoying character ever seen on British TV. And she will be sorely missed

How we made One Foot in the Grave

Richard Wilson and Doreen Mantle discuss One Foot In The Grave.

There's a lot missing from Dirk Gently (BBC4). I don't mean the missing cat that scatty and unconventional detective Dirk has been employed to find, or Gordon Way, the billionaire who disappeared at exactly the same time (though time is complicated around here). I'm talking about things in Douglas Adams's novel, vast swaths of it, in fact, that have gone missing in its transformation to the screen. Adams freaks (I think the f-word is justified here) will, no doubt, be cross.

Truth is, though, it would be physically impossible to cram all that wild imagination into 60 minutes of television. If it sounds as if I've read the book and know what the hell I'm talking about, then that's lovely, but misleading; I haven't, though I have spoken to someone who has and he reckons what we have here is the kernel of the book, a kind of digested-watch version of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. And also that it captures its essence.

Coming to it fresh, it's a neat story about aforementioned missing cat and time travel, with a smattering of quantum physics and the fundamental connectedness of things. With a lovely performance from Doreen Mantle as the old lady/murderer. Stephen Mangan's good in the title role, too - a teeny bit irritating perhaps, but then Mangan is a teeny bit irritating. So is Dirk Gently, though - it's perfect. Funny too. Quite funny...

Douglas Adams always believed that Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency would make a better film than his more celebrated novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - although we can only wonder if the hugely talented, fitfully productive writer, who died in 2001 aged 49, would admire the concision of this one-hour adaptation. They've even lopped three words from the book's title. Running his Holistic Detective Agency, based on "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things", Dirk is broke and hopelessly chaotic. Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) is a spot-on Dirk, ably assisted by Helen Baxendale and Darren Boyd as sidekicks MacDuff and Susan. The plot builds to flights of fantasy from a simple case of a missing cat owned by pensioner Ruth, played by Doreen Mantle. From One Foot in the Grave's Mrs Warboys to Mrs Fishwick currently in Corrie, she's the connoisseur's vague old dear with impeccable comic timing.

'One Foot in the Grave' star Doreen Mantle joins Corrie

Former One Foot in the Grave star Doreen Mantle has been cast as Colin Fishwick's mother in Coronation Street.