Her flame-red hair suggested both great reserves of energy and an earthiness that wasn't to be messed with; she was pretty and a good actress; but it was the voice, above all, which made Millicent Martin someone very special in British television in the 1960s. Sounding sometimes like a mellifluous corncrake, sometimes like a sweet bell, and always like nothing else on earth, the voice was made for the intricate lyrics (different every week) for the title-song of "That Was The Week That Was", a show which also always gave her a terrific jazz song to sing about halfway through (usually composed
… More by the team of Dave Lee and Stephen Vinaver). She was funny and clever and singular, and she did altogether too little on British TV after "TW3" was cravenly curtailed by the BBC at the end of 1963. America gave her better chances - she starred in "Side By Side By Sondheim" on Broadway, had a recurring role in a short-lived series called "Downtown" and had a late triumph on "Frasier", playing Daphne's impossible mother. 
