Queenie’s Castle

1 9 7 0 – 1 9 7 2 (UK)
18 x 30 minute episodes

Written by Keith Waterhouse & Willis Hall, this was a popular North Country vehicle for the legendary Diana Dors.

Dors starred as the indomitable, iron-willed and downright blunt Queenie Shepherd – drinker of Light Ale by the crate-load, owner of a stout Yorkshire accent and bitter ruler of the roost in her own castle: Flat 75 in a council tower block named Margaret Rose House, situated in the regally named Buckingham Flats estate (filmed at the – now demolished – Quarry Hill flats at Leeds).

Freddie Fletcher, Barrie Rutter and Brian Marshall co-starred as Queenie’s three dodgy-dealing sons, Raymond, Douglas and Bernard (‘Bunny’).

While Queenie’s husband, Lionel, is mysteriously absent (assumed in prison, though there are lots of excuses as to his whereabouts), her beloved boys are involved in all manner of dodgy activities and none of them is a stranger to the local magistrates’ court.

Tony Caunter played brother-in-law Jack, with Lynne Perrie (later Ivy Tilsley in Coronation Street) as the Shepherd’s nosy patisserie-managing neighbour Mrs Petty, who, as secretary of the Residents’ Association, was viewed as the arch enemy and treated abominably.

Mrs Petty would be heartily relieved to see the back of Queenie and her “Quarry Hill Mafia” – although Jeremy, the landlord of the Builders Arms would probably be forced to seek an alternative income.

Produced by Yorkshire Television, the last four episodes of series one were recorded in black and white due to the ITV colour strike.

Six months after the end of Queenie’s Castle Dors was cast as another sassy brassy lassie in another Yorkshire TV sitcom, All Our Saturdays (1973).

Queenie Shepherd
Diana Dors
Jack Henry Shepherd
Tony Caunter
Douglas Fairbanks Shepherd
Barrie Rutter
Raymond Herbert Shepherd
Freddie Fletcher
Bunny (Bernard Anthony) Shepherd
Brian Marshall
Mrs Edith Petty
Lynne Perrie
Mrs Blakey
Kathy Staff
Jeremy the Landlord
Bryan Mosley