Colette O'Neil

Colette O'Neil is a Glasgow-born actress noted for her various roles on British television.

She was a semi-regular cast member of Coronation Street in the mid-1960s as Ruth Winter, and also made frequent guest appearances in series such as Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Adam Adamant Lives!, No Hiding Place and Softly, Softly.[2] She was also a leading cast member in the drama series The Standard[3] and The Spoils of War. In 1983 she appeared in Doctor Who in the role of Tanha in the serial Snakedance.[4]

More recently, she has appeared in Taggart, Lovejoy, Hamish Macbeth, Heartbeat, Peak Practice, Holby City, Monarch of the Glen and Bad Girls.[2]

Her film appearances were few, but included roles in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969), Dreams Lost, Dreams Found (1987), Wild Flowers (1989), and Mortdecai (2015).[5]

Collette was also Anna Sempel "keeper of the keys" in the brilliant BBC Rado drama "McLevy" alongside Scottish actors Brian Cox as McLevy and Siobhan Redmond as Jean Brash owner of "the best bawdy hoose in Edinburgh" Anna Sempel's character was my personal favourite and I was unashamedly moved by a few of the scenes she appeared in, the most moving when she fled Edinburgh to Bristol to avoid arrest (and probably hanging) for killing a nasty soldier whom she thought was about kill Jean Brash with a sword. I greatly admire Collette's acting in McLevy and missed Anna greatly.