Fenella Fielding could make a husky, breathy voice funny, seductive or quietly intrusive. We value her precise delivery, and regret how often screen roles stopped at the familiar comic vamp.
Fi1m perspective
Fenella Fielding’s voice reaches people who cannot answer it in The Prisoner (1967). As the Village’s Loudspeaker Announcer, she makes an announcement feel like another small restriction on ordinary life. We found her unsettling because being addressed without the possibility of a reply makes the control feel so routine. Patrick McGoohan gives the series its stubborn centre, but the people administering the Village have to be credible too. The husky, breathy delivery associated with her comedy is useful here for something less inviting.
Her comic reputation took shape on stage, with Sandy Wilson’s Valmouth (1958) and the revue Pieces of Eight (1959), in which she appeared alongside Kenneth Williams. Timing and double entendre were central to her appeal, with that plummy voice able to make a line sound suggestive before its meaning had quite registered. British comedy films of the 1960s repeatedly cast her as a seductive vamp. Valeria Watt in Carry On Screaming (1966) became her most famous screen role.
That success also restricted the work she was offered. After Carry On Screaming, she was typecast in vamp roles, with fewer opportunities for straighter screen acting. Her stage work included Hedda Gabler (1969), and her performances in classical and modern drama were praised. The disappointment is that screen roles so often asked for the familiar comic seductress rather than giving her something less predictable to play.
The Prisoner suggests how useful that familiar voice could be when given a different job. Colin Gordon’s Number Two makes authority seem reasonable, and Peter Swanwick’s Supervisor makes keeping people under control seem an ordinary occupation. Fielding’s announcements fit that company, giving the Village a human presence without making it feel any safer. The series sometimes labours under its own solemnity, but this use of her is simple and effective. Start there, and listen to how little she needs to do to make an everyday announcement unwelcome.
Biography
Fenella Fielding was an English actress who appeared in stage, film and television productions from the 1950s onwards. She provided the voice of the Loudspeaker Announcer and Telephone Operator in the 1967 series The Prisoner.
Fielding was born Fenella Marion Feldman on 17 November 1927 in Whitechapel, London, and died on 11 September 2018 in Hammersmith, London. She began her career in stage productions and gained prominence in the late 1950s with roles including Lady Parvula de Panzoust in the musical Valmouth (1958). She appeared in the films Carry On Regardless (1961) and Carry On Screaming! (1966), as well as The Old Dark House (1963) and Guest House Paradiso (1999). She was appointed OBE in 2018 for services to drama and charity. Her brother was Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman.
