--- name: "Una Stubbs" canonical: "https://film.one/person/una-stubbs" roles: ["Actor"] born: "1 May 1937" died: "12 August 2021" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 84 updated: "2026-09-17T01:45:38.620731+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Una Stubbs Actor. Born 1 May 1937 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK. Died 12 August 2021. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 1 May 1937, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK - **Died:** 12 August 2021 - **Active:** 1966–2010 ## Fi1m on Una Stubbs > Una Stubbs spent sixty years playing the person a scene is not about, and made every scene better for it. Her Mrs Hudson in *Sherlock* fusses, scolds and mothers two men who never asked her to, and the show never has to explain her. Watch Mrs Hudson on the stairs at 221B. Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes is rude to her in the way he is rude to everyone, as if she were furniture that talks, and Una Stubbs plays the insult as something to be tutted at and tidied away with the cups. She is not hurt and she is not cowed. She has simply decided that this man is hers to look after, and nothing he says will change the arrangement. Stubbs said she saw the part as "more like a mother figure to these two boys," and that is how she plays it, without a speech to that effect anywhere in the show. The steadiness came from a long way back. She began as a dancer in the 1950s, in revues and on television music shows, and a dancer's sense of when to move and when to hold still stayed with her for the next sixty years. *Summer Holiday* (1963), opposite Cliff Richard, got her out of the chorus and into acting. Then came the part that made her a fixture in British living rooms, Rita Rawlins in *Till Death Us Do Part* (1966–1975), one of the family in the house with Warren Mitchell, a role she was still returning to in the 1990s. Children's television and comedy filled the decades after: a guest turn as Alice in *Fawlty Towers* (1975), Aunt Sally in *Worzel Gummidge* (1979), and stage work before *Sherlock* (2010–2017) put her in front of the largest audience of her life. What she did well is not complicated. She played the exasperated and the loyal at the same time, so that a character could be furious with her family and plainly never going to leave them. She reacted rather than performed; her best moments look like things that happened to her rather than lines she had learned. And she was warm and she was brisk, the kind of woman who would make the tea and then tell you what she thought of you. We laughed a great deal at the first series of *Sherlock*, and a good share of it was at Cumberbatch being unbearable to her; the joke only works because Stubbs makes it obvious she has heard worse and is not going to give him the satisfaction. The reservations are few, and most of them were hers. She worried about having had no formal acting training, and said so. On screen the worry never shows. She was mostly the support rather than the lead, and she made ensembles work by being the one person in them not trying to run the scene. Start with the first two series of *Sherlock*, where the show is at its best. When it later falls in love with its detective, watch the landlady instead. ## Biography Una Stubbs (1937–2021) was an English actress and former dancer. She trained at La Roche dancing school in Slough and began her career as a dancer, appearing at the London Palladium and on early television music shows such as Cool for Cats. She gained notice in the 1963 film Summer Holiday before moving into acting. Stubbs became known for playing Rita Rawlins in the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part (1966–1975) and its sequels. Other television roles included Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge (1979–1981), Miss Bat in The Worst Witch (1998–2001) and Mrs Hudson in Sherlock (2010–2017). She also worked extensively in theatre, including productions at the National Theatre and in the West End. She appeared in Midsomer Murders, Call the Midwife, EastEnders and Benidorm. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, bbc.co.uk, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Sherlock* (2010), Fi1m 78, as Mrs. Hudson — [page](https://film.one/tv/sherlock.md) - *Fawlty Towers* (1975), Fi1m 90, as Alice — [page](https://film.one/tv/fawlty-towers.md) ## Also credited on (not yet reviewed) - *Till Death Us Do Part* (1966), Actor ## Also known for - *Sherlock: The Abominable Bride* (2016), Mrs. Hudson - *Midsomer Murders* (1997), Selina Jennings, Audrey Braylesford - *Call the Midwife* (2012), Gert Mills - *Agatha Christie's Marple* (2004), Mrs Pagett - *Angel* (2007), Miss Dawson - *The Durrells* (2016), Mrs. Haddock - *Casualty* (1986), Joan Bannville - *Benidorm* (2007) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/una-stubbs