I read today that Suzanne Pleshette has died aged 70 and that made me feel sad.

She was never a top-rank star but she always brought class and a warm immediacy to any film she was in.

In the early 60s she took over from Anne Bancroft in THE MIRACLE WORKER on Broadway and she later achieved notable success as Bob Newhart's screen wife in THE BOB NEWHART SHOW a role she played for six years in the 1970s.

The role she will be remembered for I suspect will be as 'Annie Hayworth' in Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Although in relatively few scenes her role as Rod Taylor's sadder-but-wiser ex- who teaches at the village school brought a much needed sympathetic feeling to what is a fairly austere film.