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[John Feltham]

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Brown,  Janet McLuckie  (1923-2011), actress and impressionist, was born on 14 December 1923 at 26 Hamilton Road, Rutherglen, near Glasgow, the daughter of Andrew Brown, a sheet-iron worker in the Clyde shipyards, and his wife, Helen McLuckie, nee Russell. She was educated at Rutherglen Academy, and made her first public appearance, aged thirteen, at Glasgow's Savoy Cinema, followed quickly by her first radio performance. On leaving school early to work in the local Co-operative store, her show-business talent was very soon spotted by Hughie Green, the impresario and broadcaster. With parental approval he engaged her to tour with his company.

From the beginning Brown worked with leading performers. During the Second World War she served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service, joining a 'Stars in Battledress' group which included the future luminaries Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, and Harry Secombe. In 1945 she appeared in the West End and was developing a radio variety career in shows such as Music Hall and Bandbox. In 1946 she was invited by Jack Hylton to appear in a summer show in Scarborough and there met the actor Peter William Shorrocks Butterworth (1919-1979), whom she married on 4 November that year. They had a son, Tyler (b. 1959), and a daughter, Emma (b. 1962).

By 1949 Brown had her own radio series on BBC Home Service Scotland. Her Scottish roots meant that her film debut was in Floodtide (1949), a romantic Clydeside drama, directed by Frederick Wilson and starring Gordon Jackson, Rona Anderson, John Laurie, and Jimmy Logan. In 1950 she appeared with Alastair Sim in James Bridie's classic, Mr Gillie, opening at the King's Theatre, Glasgow, and transferring to London's Garrick Theatre. She later praised Sim's avuncular advice: 'He taught me to always "feel" myself into a character from the inside'  (Daily Telegraph, 28 May 2011). She played with Sim again in Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's classic film Folly to be Wise (1953). Already she was establishing a reputation as an impressionist, imitating such show-business legends as Marie Lloyd, Jessie Matthews, and Gracie Fields on television programmes including Ted Ray's series A Ray of Sunshine.

In the 1950s Brown continued to be heard on radio while often working with her husband in popular children's television programmes. There they attracted a following among young viewers engaged by her dynamism contrasted with his slightly goofy comic charm. However busy she was with radio and television comedy, she still retained her acting reputation, appearing, for example, in an early Z Cars episode in 1965. Nonetheless, much of her work on television was in comedy, often playing straight roles against such comedians as Dick Emery (The Dick Emery Show, 1967-8) and Sheila Hancock and Peter Jones (Mr Digby Darling, 1969). She also appeared in summer seasons and in pantomimes where, in the classic tradition, she was usually Principal Boy.

Beside this career as an actor with a comedic gift, Brown developed her reputation as an impressionist. She found a regular place on London Weekend Television's show Who Do You Do? (1972-4) and its follow-up, Now Who Do You Do? (1976). This aspect of her career took off when Margaret Thatcher became Conservative Party leader in 1975. Brown's Thatcher impression was first called for by Eamonn Andrews at short notice for Thames Television's Today Show; as Martin Childs later wrote, her 'attention to detail enabled her to capture not only her alter ego's mannerisms and style of dress but also her distinctive manner of speaking'  (The Independent, 31 May 2011). A Conservative herself, Brown's impressions were never malicious and at her peak an audience of fourteen million watched. When the Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981) called for someone to play the prime minister, the natural choice was Brown.

Brown had moved to work for BBC television on leading impressionist Mike Yarwood's show (1977-81) before having her own series, Janet and Co (1980-82), in which, besides Thatcher, she impersonated a wide range of women, including the television presenter Esther Rantzen and the poet Pam Ayres. She also appeared regularly on the satirical Radio 2 programme The News Huddlines (1975-2001) and in a number of Royal Variety Shows, once coming on as Carol Channing, deceiving the audience until the real Channing appeared and they sang together.

Although her work as an impressionist was less prominent after Thatcher's fall from power in 1990, as late as 2004 Brown joined younger impressionists, playing Barbara Bush for The Impressionable John Culshaw. In the 1990s she also returned to straight acting, appearing, for example, in 1996 as Mrs Sparsit in a stage version of Charles Dickens's Hard Times, which toured the UK. Her last stage performance was as Old Mrs Squeamish in William Wycherley's The Country Wife, alongside Toby Stephens and Patricia Hodge in Jonathan Kent's 2007-8 Theatre Royal Haymarket season. Her revived theatrical career was complemented by appearances in such popular television drama series as Doctors (2003), Midsomer Murders (2004), Casualty (2005), and Hotel Babylon (2009).

Although Brown was clear where her wider fame originated-entitling her autobiography Prime Mimicker (1986)-she was a versatile performer, at home in classic drama as well as popular entertainment, and in demand for cameo parts until very near the end of her life. At every career stage, she appeared with and was respected by the most highly regarded of her peers, being engaged by directors of the highest reputation. At the heart of her success lay her close attention to the professional demands of her art. A superb impressionist and fine player of comedy, she was above all a skilled actress, disciplined and able to work with the best in the classical tradition from, early in her career, Alastair Sim to, later, Toby Stephens. She died at the Victoria Oaklands Nursing Home in Hove, Sussex, of cancer of the colon on 27 May 2011, and was buried beside her husband in Danehill cemetery, Sussex. She was survived by her son, Tyler Butterworth, himself a successful actor. Her daughter, Emma, died of leukaemia in 1996, aged thirty-four.

Ian Brown 

Sources  J. Brown, Prime mimicker (1986) + The Times (28 May 2011) + Daily Telegraph (28 May 2011) + The Guardian (28 May 2011) + The Herald [Glasgow] (28 May 2011) + The Independent (31 May 2011) + personal knowledge (2015) + b. cert. + m. cert. + d. cert.
Likenesses  Vivienne, vintage bromide print, 1950-59, NPG · photographs, 1950-79, Getty Images, London · photographs, 1954-2001, PA Photos, London · photographs, 1964-80, Rex Features, London · D. Jones, photograph, 1979, Rex Features, London [see illus.] · photographs, 1985, Camera Press, London · Photoshot, photograph, 1995, Photoshot, London
Wealth at death  £728,628: probate, 15 Dec 2011, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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