[4][5][6][7] When she was six weeks old, her parents moved back to Britain, but they returned to South Africa four years later after the birth of Mantle's brother Alan in 1930.

After her return, she had a small role as a wedding guest at the Aldwych theatre in a 1967 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Jules Feiffer’s play Little Murders.

[10] After a lean spell during which she worked as a London tourist guide, Mantle’s career was given a boost by William Trevor’s play Going Home at the King’s Head theatre club, Islington, in 1972.

She also toured Britain in Billy Liar in the role of Florence Boothroyd and performed at the National Theatre in The Voysey Inheritance.

[14] Mantle would go on to find fame in her sixties, when in 1989 she was cast as the hapless and naive Jean Warboys, friend of Margaret (Annette Crosbie) and Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson) in David Renwick's sitcom One Foot in the Grave.

[15] She was a regular in the first two series (2006–2008) of the sitcom Jam & Jerusalem, written by Jennifer Saunders, appearing in 12 episodes as Queenie, the school crossing attendant.