Nationwide treasure Felicity Kendal has turned have-a-go hero after heading off a cellphone snatcher in her Chelsea neighbourhood.
The 79-year-old actress rose to fame because the star of beloved sitcom The Good Life and mild crime drama Rosemary & Thyme.
She leapt into motion amid a latest spate of crime in the London borough the place she has lived for the reason that Sixties.
‘Crime was by no means like this earlier than. The phone-snatching is appalling,’ she revealed just lately.
‘Inside three days I noticed three,’ she outlined, sharing how she had ‘snapped’ after witnessing one such assault.
Recognizing a lady grow to be swarmed by a gang of cellphone thieves, Felicity took motion, scaring off the criminals with a well-timed honk of her automotive horn.
Talking to native information outlet The Chelsea Citizen, Felicity mentioned: ‘Sooner or later I used to be strolling my canine Rufus and all of the sudden three bikes shot onto the pavement, smashed a automotive window, and somebody screamed.
‘A lady was parked there and so they had taken her cellphone, similar to that. It was over in seconds. I used to be driving down Draycott Avenue the subsequent day after I noticed a younger lady strolling and all of the sudden a number of bikes swarmed round her. It was like Spaghetti Junction. They grabbed her cellphone and so they began to hurry off.
‘One thing in me snapped, so I banged the horn and yelled and one of many lads dropped the cellphone. The lady bought it again.’
May you see your self chasing off a cellphone snatcher like Felicity Kendal?
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Describing her response as ‘intuition,’ Felicity went on to speak about her life in Chelsea, revealing how she may promote the four-storey home she shared with late husband Michael Rudman, who died in 2023.
‘I’m pleased to maneuver on when the time is true,’ she mentioned, including: ‘I’ve all the time liked residing in Chelsea, so I can’t think about being anyplace else.’
Felicity met theatre director husband Michael in 1974, and the pair married in 1983. Felicity and Michael divorced in 1991, earlier than reconciling seven years later.
On assembly Felicity, Michael mirrored: ‘I can’t say I fell in love together with her that day, however I definitely felt in a different way about her than I did about her co-stars Tom Courtenay and Michael Gambon.’
Writing in his memoir, I Joke Too A lot, he continued: ‘Quickly afterwards I supplied Felicity a task in a play I used to be directing within the West Finish.
‘The manufacturing went properly and when, a while later, we started courting we determined to maintain our relationship a secret.’
In 2021, Felicity spoke of her concern when Michael was hospitalised with Coronavirus, telling The Camden New Journal: ‘I believe I can communicate for lots of people in regards to the concern being large, and the frustration being an actual hardship.’
‘That feeling that you simply don’t know what state your beloved is in, and figuring out you continue to can’t go and see them – it’s not like something you’ve skilled earlier than. It was simply such a scary time. Michael is in his eighties.’
Michael spent a fortnight in intensive care on a ventilator, earlier than his eventual restoration – though the following well being issues meant that he required full-time residence carers for the final two years of his life.
Talking to The Occasions Journal about her husband’s loss of life, Felicity described the expertise as ‘f***ing s**t.’
She continued: ‘Individuals say, are you OK? In fact I’m not. He simply f***ing died on me. Some days I’m superb. Typically not so good. Largely, I get by means of. Silly issues set me off. It’s very unusual. You’ll be able to’t inform forward what it’s going to be.’
‘If something, I suppose I want to say that it’s good to speak about these items. There’s numerous stiff higher lip with loss of life. Individuals keep away from it or say issues like, “I’m sorry you misplaced your husband.”
Felicity added: ‘I really hate that. It’s as you probably have misplaced the cat. I haven’t misplaced Michael; he’s useless. We’re all at one level or one other going to should take care of comparable issues, so let’s be open about it.’
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