Gudrun Ure, the actor who played Super Gran in the popular 1980s ITV children’s series, has died at the age of 98.
According to her niece, Kate McNeill, she died at her home in London.
Ure was born in Milton of Campsie, near Stirling, in 1926 and was brought up in Glasgow. In her early career, she acted at the Edinburgh festival, at the Children’s Theatre and in a 1951 stage version of Othello starring and directed by Orson Welles. She later appeared in the TV dramas Casualty and Midsomer Murders.
But Ure is best known for her stint as Super Gran, a role she took up at the age of 59. Her character had superhuman strength and agility after being hit by a magic ray, and the show featured basic special effects from the era and a cartwheeling stunt double. It was based on books by the children’s author Forrest Wilson, first published in 1978 with illustrations by David McKee.
Several stars of the 1970s and 80s appeared on the show including the strongman and shot putter Geoff Capes, the comic actor Roy Kinnear, and the footballer George Best.
In 1987, Ure told the BBC the role was “great fun”.
The show’s theme tune was written and performed by Billy Connolly. It included the lines: “You can take your heroes, your Robert De Niros, your Al Pacino too, and big Stallone is just another phoney, he couldn’t lace her shoes!”
It ended with the line: “Is there nothing that she cannae do?”
Only 27 episodes of Super Gran were made, but it was broadcast in 60 countries and won an international Emmy in 1985 in the children and young people category.
McNeill said: “She had a very memorable voice. I remember my husband was watching Casualty one night, and I went ‘that’s Gudrun’ as soon as I heard the voice.”
