Angela Richards
Angela Richards (born 18 December 1944) is an English actress and singer, best known to television viewers for her leading role in the BBC drama Secret Army (1977–79), set during the Second World War in which she played Monique Duchamps.
Richards, with help from Ken Moule and Leslie Osborne, wrote and sang many of the songs that were a regular and popular feature of the series, including "Memories Come Gently", "Velvet Blue", "I Bet You've Heard This One Before", "Good to Me", "All Our Yesterdays", "When We Can Live in Peace Once More" and "If This Is The Last Time I See You".
A graduate of RADA, Richards is also well known for her body of work in musical theatre, having starred in several West End productions such as Robert and Elizabeth (her debut in 1964), Cats (following Elaine Paige as Grizabella), High Society, Blood Brothers, Cole and Liza of Lambeth. Recent musical theatre work includes: Dorothy Fields Forever and Call Me Merman.
Her other television credits include Villette, Candide (a BBC Play of the Month, 1973), King of the Castle (1977), Kessler (1981), Minder (1984), Across the Lake (1988) with Anthony Hopkins and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates (1996).
In March 2006, over two nights at the King's Head Theatre, Richards returned to the songs she created for Secret Army, in a show entitled An Evening at Le Candide. This has since been made into a studio-recorded CD available from the Secret Army website below.
Between September 2007 and June 2008 she appeared as Fraulein Schneider in the musical Cabaret in London's West End opposite Julian Clary and Amy Nuttall.