Partner to appear in her own sketch show

The partner of Bill Pertwee has vowed to press ahead with her own comedy sketch show – which she will perform just ten days after his death.

Dad’s Army star Pertwee died on Monday at the age of 86, with his companion Maggie Bourgein by his side.

But she says she will not pull out of the Bath Comedy Festival, where she will be performing in the double-act Women Of An Uncertain Age with fellow actress Flip Webster.

Bourgein said: ‘Bill was very supportive of our show and had seen it several times. He wouldn't want us to cancel.

‘In fact only recently he said that he would like to do something with Flip and me. He was a trooper and he would expect us to be the same – to carry on making people laugh.'

The Devon-based pair say that Women Of An Uncertain Age aims to be an antidote to the lack of older women in the media, saying: ‘Judging by the comedy available on TV and elsewhere, one would think that having a laugh, let alone creating one, was the preserve of the young and usually, the male.’

The show plays the Bath festival – which kicks off today – on June 7 and 8, before heading to Edinburgh’s Gilded Balloon this August.

Pertwee found love with Bourgein after his wife Marion McLeod, who also used to be an actress, died in 2005. She, like him, died on May 27.

Published: 29 May 2013