✽ The smoky-voiced actress Glynis Johns, best remembered as the singing suffragette Winifred Banks in the 1964 film Mary Poppins, turns 100 on 5th October.
Born in South Africa, where her parents were on a showbusiness tour, Johns came to Britain at the age of five and attended Clifton High School in Bristol while training as a ballerina.
After appearing in the chorus of several West End musicals, she made her big-screen debut alongside Ralph Richardson in 1938 political drama South Riding.
It was the first of 60 films she graced at roughly yearly intervals until her cameo role as a grandmother in the undistinguished American comedy Superstar (1999).
Perhaps it's due to the proverbial spoonful of sugar, but it's pleasing to note
