Gudrun Ure, who has died aged 98, was 59 – and playing older than her years – when she landed the television role that finally made her famous after 40 years as an actor. She starred in the 1980s ITV children’s series Super Gran, as the happy, gentle elderly woman who finds, after a magic-ray machine is fired at her during a stroll in the park, that she has new special powers to help her defend residents of the fictional town of Chiselton from villains.
It is the villain-in-chief, Scunner Campbell (played by Iain Cuthbertson), who accidentally fires the contraption after stealing it from Inventor Black (Bill Shine). This turns Granny Smith into “Super Gran” and, assisted by very basic special effects, Ure was seen jumping high or pole-vaulting through windows (using a trampoline and trick camera angles), flying (with the help of a crane) and riding through the air on a two-wheel, multiwinged Flycycle (in reality an adapted butcher’s boy’s bike). Ure did many of the stunts herself, while some – including Super Gran cartwheeling – were performed by a double.
