Joy Nichols

Who was Joy Nichols?

Joy Eileen Nichols born in Sydney, Australia was a comedian and actress who worked in Australia, Britain and the United States. She is best known as a star of Take It From Here on BBC Radio.

Originally part of a song-and-dance double act with her brother George, Joy Nichols moved to Britain in 1946 to further her career. The producer Charles Maxwell gave her a major role in the last series of Navy Mixture in 1947 starring with Jimmy Edwards. Guest appearances by fellow Australian Dick Bentley led to the pairing of Bentley's writer Denis Norden with Edwards and Nichols' writer Frank Muir on Take It From Here, starring Edwards, Bentley and Nichols, who both sang and played comedy.

In 1949, Nichols married Wally Peterson, an American musical comedy performer who was then touring in the London production of Oklahoma!. In 1952 she temporarily left Take It From Here while she gave birth to a daughter, Roberta. The following year Nichols departed for good and was replaced by June Whitfield and Alma Cogan, just as the show took off with the appearance of The Glums. Nichols returned with her husband to the United States.