Who was Super Gran? The TV star and the 1980s hit children's show
Gudrun Ure recalled her time in the title role of 1980s hit children's show Super Gran in an interview with Rachel Bullock in 2019
Super Gran was the 1980s programme that had children of all ages running to the television.
The star of the show was the eponymous hero, played by Gudrun Ure, whose death at the age of 98 was announced on Tuesday 14 May.
The hit series was made by Tyne Tees Television and was set in the North East.
Across its 27 episodes, which aired over two years from 1985, the series followed a gran who was zapped by a magic ray - leaving her with superpowers.
Ure was 59 when she was cast in the title role of Super Gran and she did many of the stunts herself on the low budget show.
The Super Gran theme tune from the Tyne Tees Television programme was performed by Billy Connelly
It won her an army of young fans and an International Emmy award in the Children and Young People category.
It was the thrill of working on a programme aimed at the younger generation, and the joy of working with youngsters, that she remembered when speaking to ITV Tyne Tees in 2019."Well I'm very grateful for it," she said. "I didn't recognise what was going on at the time, it was just a job like any other job.
"I was blessed by the fact it was a children's programme and the children were lovely. They really, really were lovely, and I did meet thousands of them I suppose."
But it was the stunts that tested both the crew and Super Gran herself.
She explained in 2019: "I do remember the first sort of stunt and being very terrified and of course, as always happens with cameras and crews and things, once you've done it - this was jumping out of - I don't know what I was jumping out of onto the ground - then they all go away and you're left there standing wondering what all that was about."
Super Gran was largely filmed in and around Tynemouth. And it was her time in the North East that Ure also recalled with fondness.
"I do like the North East," she continued in her 2019 interview. "Newcastle is nice - it really is nice.
"And we were Tyneside which was even nicer because [of] the sea, and I like the sea."
Super Gran is seen rollerskating through Tynemouth in the opening of this episode of Super Gran from Tyne Tees Television
The series is even now celebrated in regular bus tours hosted by Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw, highlighting the area's TV, film and musical legends.Following news of Ure's death, he told ITV Tyne Tees: "One thing it did was notify a lot of people who weren't familiar with this neck of the woods how wonderful it is, how photogenic it is, but she brought it to life a bit too because she was such a wonderful actress.
"She'd done all sorts of amazing things before she did that. Also, it became part of the furniture for those of us who live here.
"We were so used to seeing the crews in and around the streets. They became like neighbours. It was great."
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