My mother, Vanessa Rosenthal, the actor and writer, who has died aged 78, worked for 55 years in film, television and radio, but her first love was the theatre.
She was acclaimed for her performances in Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2002) and the National Theatre’s tour of The Importance of Being Earnest (1999, in which she played Miss Prism). Her last role, before Covid hit, was as Irene Ruddock in Alan Bennett’s A Lady of Letters, at what by then had become the Leeds Playhouse. She had stints on television shows such as Emmerdale Farm, Heartbeat and The Royal, and her film work included Wetherby (1985) with another Vanessa (Redgrave).
