Vida Hope

Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, to theatrical parents, Hope travelled widely as a child.

[2] She took every opportunity to take part in amateur dramatics, managing to get lead roles in plays by Shaw, Ibsen, and Chekhov.

[2] In 1940, she supported and formed a strong friendship with Dirk Bogarde, in his first West End play, Diversions.

[5] Hope played a prominent role alongside Alec Guinness in the Academy Award-nominated film The Man in the White Suit as Bertha, in 1951.

She appeared in a range of roles in a production of Peer Gynt at the New Theatre in London (1944–45),[6] she directed the 1953 London production of The Boy Friend (and is also credited as director on the 'original cast' recording of 1954 starring Julie Andrews)[7] and directed Valmouth at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1958) and a revival of The Boy Friend at the Bristol Hippodrome (1958–59).