Diane Keen (born 29 July 1946) is an English actress. With a career spanning numerous decades, she has appeared in various television series, films and stage productions. Keen's notable roles include Fliss Hawthorne in theGranada sitcomThe Cuckoo Waltz, Sandy Bennett inRings on Their Fingers, Jenny Burden inThe Ruth Rendell Mysteries andJulia Parsons on theBBC soap operaDoctors. Keen also appeared inNescafé advertisements from 1980 to 1989.

Keen was born in London on 29 July 1946.^[1] She grew up inEast Africa, principallyTanganyika and laterKenya, where her father was a civil engineer.^[2] She attended boarding school and returned to Britain at the age of 19,^[2] where she became a secretary forThe Ivy League's fan club; this led to her releasing a 45 r.p.m. single of "Sally Go 'Round the Roses" (credited as Dee King) on thePiccadilly label in 1966.^[3]

Keen was a regular on television during the 1970s and early 1980s, starring in long-running sitcoms such asThe Cuckoo Waltz,Rings on Their Fingers,Shillingbury Tales andYou Must Be the Husband, and in two runs of theThames Television children's historical costume dramaThe Feathered Serpent. She also guest-starred in many shows, includingThe Morecambe and Wise Show, and featured as Laura Dickens in the spy dramaThe Sandbaggers.

Keen played Sandra Gould inCrossroads from 1968 to 1971.^[4] She featured in the filmHere We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968) as Claire,Judy Geeson's university student friend, and appeared in an episode ofBudgie as Barbara. She appeared full frontal nude, inThe Sex Thief 1973, playing Judy Marvin^[5] and topless in the feature film,Sweeney!, in the 1977 cinema spin-off, of the 1970sITV detective seriesThe Sweeney. Keen starred asElisabeth of Austria-Hungary ("Sissi") in episode one of the ITV, 13-part seriesFall of Eagles (1974), and played Hilda inThe Professionals series 1 episodeKiller With a Long Arm in 1978. In 1980, she appeared as widowed restaurant owner Christina in Series 1 episodeThe Dessert Song ofMinder. She went on to star with David Jason inA Touch of Frost.^[6]

Keen starred in a series of advertisements forNescafé coffee from 1980 to 1989^[7] and made an appearance in an episode ofTaggart in 1987.^[8] In the next decade, she became a regular in theThe Ruth Rendell Mysteries series, playing the wife ofInspector Wexford's D.I.^[9] Roles inBrookside and several other television series followed, includingNew Tricks.^[10]

Keen was then a series regular in theBBC soap operaDoctors, playing practice managerJulia Parsons from 2003 to 2012.^[2] She reprised this role in March 2020 for a short stint.^[11] For her portrayal of Julia, Keen was annually nominated for theBritish Soap Award for Best Actress between the 2005 and 2010British Soap Awards.^[12] She was nominated for Best Actress again in 2012.^[13] She also won in the Actress category at the 2008RTS Midlands Awards.^[14]

Keen has appeared onstage, including in theAlan Ayckbourn playAbsent Friends at theBristol Old Vic, and in two acclaimed tours ofSame Time, Next Year. In 2015 she appeared withGraham Cole in Steve Wood'sYou're Never Too Old.^[15] In 2013, she co-starred in a British tour ofThe Vagina Monologues.^[16] A year later, she appeared in a stage production of thriller playThe Small Mind, adapted from the novel bySusan Hill.^[17] Then in 2023, she was cast in a production ofHome, I'm Darling that toured across the UK.^[18]

Keen has one daughter, Melissa, by her marriage toPaul Greenwood, which ended in divorce in 1979. Her granddaughter, Siena Pugsley, played the role of her on-screen granddaughter,Chloe McGuire, inDoctors.^[19] In September 2023, Keen announced via herTwitter (X) account that she had suffered a “Catastrophic Stroke” and that she was lucky to be alive.^[20] Over the following twelve months, she tweeted about her ongoing recovery.

• Diane Keen atIMDb

• 1946 births
• 20th-century English actresses
• 21st-century English actresses
• Living people
• Actresses from London
• English film actresses
• English soap opera actresses
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses

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