Gretchen Franklin Trailers
Return to Waterloo TrailerRagtime TrailerQuincy's Quest Trailer
Born in Covent Garden, West London in 1911, Gretchen Franklin was an English actress and dancer whose showbusiness career spanned over 70 years. She was best known for her role as Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap opera EastEnders. She appeared in the very first episode in 1985 and was a regular in the series until 1988. After this she returned to the show intermittently until 2000 when her character was killed off, allowing Franklin to retire from acting at the age of 89. Born into a theatrical family (her father had a song and dance act, her grandfather was a famous music hall entertainer at the turn of the century and her cousin was Dad's Army star Clive Dunn) Gretchen Franklin made her theatre debut as a teenage chorus girl. She toured with comedians such as Gracie Fields before making the switch to serious acting. Her film appearances included Cloak Without Dagger (1956), Flame in the Streets (1961), The Murder Game (1965), Help! (1965), How I Won The War (1967), Twisted Nerve (1968), The Night Visitor (1971), The Three Musketeers (1973), Quincy's Quest (1979), and Ragtime (1981), among others. She is namechecked in The Fall's 1990 song Telephone Thing.
Most Popular Gretchen Franklin Trailers
Total trailers found: 25
31 December 1963
Police hunt for mental hospital out patient Simon Lacey, who has been unwittingly handing out barbiturates to children as sweets.
01 November 1978
Aspiring dancer Phyllis Dixey makes her name as a stripper.
01 January 1961
Travel agent Emrys Jones and tourist Patricia Dainton fall in love in sunny Italy. Jones has led Dainton to believe that he's fabulously wealthy, and she has likewise deceived him.
12 December 1968
A young wife is becoming very distraught over the fact that her husband, a secret service "spy" for England, has changed his mind about transferring away so that he can spend more time with her and their young son.
01 November 1984
A man taking the train to work one morning is overcome by melancholy memories and morbid fantasies.
18 October 1967
An inept British WWII commander leads his troops to a series of misadventures in North Africa and Europe.
11 December 1973
In 17th century France, young D'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
06 February 1957
A beautiful redhead becomes involved with a group of small-time hoodlums who plan and perform a daring diamond robbery.
10 February 1955
A woman travels to England to attend her parents' funeral. She is told by officials that they died of natural causes together, but she doesn't buy it.
20 November 1981
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
31 October 1974
The Four Musketeers defend the queen and her dressmaker from Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter.
29 July 1965
An obscure Eastern cult that practices human sacrifice pursues Ringo after he unknowingly puts on a ceremonial ring (that, of course, won't come off).
20 December 1968
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome.
12 December 1965
A woman abandons her husband, changes her name, and remarries again. Complications ensue.
25 October 1960
Film "The Poet" based on the one-act play Il Poeta by Dario Niccodemi.
10 February 1971
An insane Swedish farmer escapes from an asylum to get revenge on his sister, her husband and others.
06 November 1970
Agnes realizes 'the other woman' in her and Bob's family life is the company he works for. 'The Company' demands total priority and loyalty in Bob's life.
19 November 1961
A feud over rose-growing escalates to manic proportions when one neighbor acquires a fast-growing creeper.
29 September 1949
Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status.
24 December 1979
It's the night before Christmas, and all the toy store rejects are due to be tossed into the furnace.
01 October 1956
A British theater actress unable to get out of her contract is assisted by an American playwright when a pair of her scissors is discovered lodged in her producer's back.
19 June 1961
Domestic difficulties develop in a working-class family when their daughter falls in love with a Jamaican man.
14 August 1973
Secrets Chocolates receive an unexpected sales boost when three maintenance workers fall into the chocolate vat and are fed through the production line.
31 May 1956
A woman reporter discovers a former lover and intelligence officer during WWII apparently working as a waiter in a hotel; and, believing something she impulsively did while he was on a mission is responsible for his current situation, sets out to make things better by finding a foreign agent known only as Kupchek, with the help of the hotel's detective.
18 April 1965
Michael and Jo Richardson are celebrating their wedding anniversary at a secluded country cottage. Jo discovers the body of their friend Edward Fellowes in the bedroom and calls Dr Clarkeson, but finds his behaviour very strange.
