Jenny Tomasin
- Publication: The Times
- Date: 2012-01-23
- Author:
- Page: 43
- Language: English
Actress best known for her performance as the scullery maid Ruby in Upstairs Downstairs
The actress Jenny Tomasin played the timid, put-upon scullery maid Ruby in the ITV drama Upstairs Downstairs. Hapless, accident prone and with a tendency to daydream of running off with Rudolph Valentino when she should have been scrubbing the floor, she was the butt of some of the show's memorable catchphrases, as when the cook Mrs Bridges would exclaim after another of her scrapes: "Oh Ruby!" or "Ruby! What's that girl up to?"
Born in Leeds in 1936 into a working class family who were not very supportive of her acting ambitions, Tomasin had to sell Green Shield stamp books to pay for the fare to the audition for what was her first television role. Her portrayal was imbued with her humble roots and elicited empathy and affection from the show's huge audience.
From 1972 to 1975 she appeared in 41 episodes of the series that chronicled an Edwardian upper-class family in a Belgravia townhouse, and also the lives of the servants below stairs. Such was Tomasin's popularity as the drudge, who was smarter than people gave her credit for, a spin-off series was planned, featuring Ruby working in a boarding house for her erstwhile colleagues, the Scottish butler Hudson and Mrs Bridges. The project was cancelled after the death of Angela Baddeley, who played Mrs Bridges, in 1976.
Tomasin struggled to adapt to life after Upstairs Downstairs. "I had felt as though I belonged to a wonderful, happy family - and then all of a sudden the family broke up. It was terribly hard to adjust. But I was hopeful of a dazzling future. I couldn't imagine the years of anguish that awaited me."
Tomasin claimed that she was never given roles as the stronger women that she felt she was capable of playing. Roles offered tended to be in similar guise; she appeared in the soap Crossroads as the maid Florence Baker and even in 2004 as a maid in a West End run of The Marquise by Nöel Coward.
In 1985 she appeared in Dr Who opposite Colin Baker in The Revelation of the Daleks. Her character, Tasambeker, was inevitably exterminated by the Doctor's pepperpot-shaped foes.
She returned to her Yorkshire roots in Emmerdale in early 1980s as Naomi Tolly. Killed off, she reapperaed in the soap in 2006 as Noreen Bell, a cantankerous wig-wearing villager. The character was killed off when a housing estate blew up. It was her final TV role.
Jenny Tomasin, actress, was born on November 30, 1936. She died on January 19, 2012, aged 75
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- APA 6th ed.: (2012-01-23). Jenny Tomasin. The Times p. 43.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Jenny Tomasin." The Times [add city] 2012-01-23, 43. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Jenny Tomasin." The Times, edition, sec., 2012-01-23
- Turabian: "Jenny Tomasin." The Times, 2012-01-23, section, 43 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Jenny Tomasin | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Jenny_Tomasin | work=The Times | pages=43 | date=2012-01-23 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=12 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Jenny Tomasin | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Jenny_Tomasin | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=12 March 2025}}</ref>
