The actor Lynn Dalby, who found fame as Adam Faith's on-screen girlfriend in the hit 1970s television series Budgie and later starred in Emmerdale Farm, has died at the age of 78. She passed away from the lung condition COPD.
From Budgie to the Dales: A Defining Television Career
Dalby's career spanned stage and screen, but she will be most fondly remembered for her television roles. Her breakthrough came playing Hazel Fletcher, the long-suffering girlfriend of petty criminal Ronald 'Budgie' Bird, played by Adam Faith. The show ran for two series from 1971 to 1972 and blended drama with comedy, following Budgie's ill-fated money-making schemes.
Dalby said she deeply understood her character's motivations. "I think she just wants security and stays with Budgie because he's all she has," she once explained, adding that she could imagine making the same choices in Hazel's position.
In 1972, she joined the cast of the newly launched ITV soap Emmerdale Farm. She played Ruth Merrick, a woman hiding a devastating secret: her son was not fathered by her husband, Tom, but by her former lover, Jack Sugden. Her tenure in the soap, across two stints in 1972 and 1974, involved dramatic storylines including a suicide attempt.
Stage Roots and a Life on Screen
Born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on 17 February 1947, Lynn Margaret Dalby trained at the Corona Academy in London from the age of 12. Her early, uncredited film roles included The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (1960). She honed her craft in repertory theatre before landing West End roles, including Chava in Fiddler on the Roof at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1970.
Before Budgie, she had already charmed television audiences as Rita, one of the female gnomes in the BBC sitcom The Gnomes of Dulwich (1969). Her later TV work included roles in Return of the Saint (1979), the BBC thriller Breakaway (1980), and a stint on Crossroads as secretary Rita Hughes.
A New Chapter in Australia and Lasting Legacy
In 1977, she married actor Ray Lonnen, though the couple divorced in 1983. The following year, Dalby emigrated to Sydney, Australia, where she continued to act. She appeared in the mini-series Tusitala (1986), the soap Sons and Daughters (1987), and popular dramas like Water Rats and All Saints. She returned to the UK in 2019.
Lynn Dalby is survived by her daughter, Amy, from her marriage to Ray Lonnen, and her two sisters, Lesley and Gillian. Her portrayal of resilient, complex women in two of British television's most beloved series ensures her place in the memory of a generation of viewers.
