the Vaudeville Theatre in Kander and Ebb's 70 Girls 70 to great acclaim. She appeared with Trevor Peacock in the National Theatre's 1994 revival of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. Screen roles and other work Instantly recognisable from her voice, which became a trademark of her performances, she followed many of her theatre contemporaries into film acting, generally playing supporting roles. She often played women of easy virtue—for example in The Fallen Idol (1948), one of her early films, and Ealing's The Blue Lamp (1950). She appeared in similarly stereotypical female roles in other films, for example Gift Horse (1952), The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), The Green Man (1956) and Carry On Sergeant (1958). She appeared in cameo on radio comedy series of which included Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (1951), Hancock's Half Hour an episode commonly known as "Cinderella Hancock" (1955). British Pathe filmed Bryan in 1957 in 'Home on Wheels', featuring her and friends in her personal caravan. She appeared in the film A Taste of Honey (1961), which won four BAFTA awards, including Best Actress for Bryan and Best British Film. In 1963, she recorded the Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is a Beatle", which reached no. 20 on the UK charts. She played the Headmistress in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), and she starred in According to Dora (1968–1969), her own television series for the BBC. Bryan appeared in the UK-Argentine thriller Apartment Zero (1988). The film was directed by Martin Donovan and starred Hart Bochner and Colin Firth. Bryan plays the role of one of two eccentric characters (the other was played by Liz Smith) described by The Washington Post as two "tea-and-crumpet gargoyle-featured spinsters who snoop the corridors". It featured in the 1988 Sundance Film Festival. She appeared in two episodes of series one of the BBC sitcom On The Up in 1990 as Mrs Carpenter (the mother of main character Tony, played by Dennis Waterman), but left soon after to be replaced by actress Pauline Letts for series two and three. Around this time, she joked with Terry Wogan and Michael Barrymore on their TV shows that she was aged not 70 but "sixty-several" and could still kick her leg higher than her head. In 1999, she made an appearance in the Victoria Wood sitcom dinnerladies. In 2000, she joined the cast of the long-running BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine as