Editing Felicity Kendal (section)

==Early life==
Felicity Ann Kendal was born in [[Olton]], [[Warwickshire]], England, in 1946.<ref name="BBC SCD 2010">{{cite web |title=Strictly Come Dancing: Felicity Kendal |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing/2010/dancers/celebrity/felicity_kendal.shtml |publisher=BBC  |year=2010 |access-date=14 December 2012 |archive-date=4 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004052210/http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing/2010/dancers/celebrity/felicity_kendal.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="GALE"/> She is the younger daughter of Laura Liddell and actor and manager [[Geoffrey Kendal]].<ref name="Merchant Ivory Shakespeare"/> Her older sister, [[Jennifer Kendal]], was also an actress.<ref name="GKOBIT"/>

After early years in Birmingham, Kendal lived in India with her family from the age of seven: her father was an English actor-manager who led his own [[Repertory theatre|repertory company]] on tours of India.<ref name="Merchant Ivory Shakespeare"/> The ensemble would perform plays from a repertoire including [[Shakespeare]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], and [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]] to audiences that included schoolchildren, nuns, British expatriates, and royalty.{{sfn|Kendal|1998}}{{sfn|Roisman Cooper|2015|p=207}} As the family travelled, Kendal attended six different Loreto College convent schools in India,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03m7hk6|title=BBC Radio 4 Extra – Desert Island Discs Revisited, The Good Life, Felicity Kendal|publisher=BBC|access-date=15 November 2014|archive-date=14 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214122211/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03m7hk6|url-status=live}}</ref> until the age of 13.<ref name="REESM">{{cite news |last=Rees |first=Jasper |date=15 November 2006 |title=Why I love playing a monster |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-why-i-love-playing-a/145351183/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420122230/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-why-i-love-playing-a/145351183/ |archive-date=20 April 2024 |access-date=16 April 2024 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |page=35 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She contracted [[typhoid fever]] in Calcutta at the age of 17.<ref name="The Guardian March 2010">{{cite news |last=Greenstreet |first=Rosanna |date=27 March 2010 |title=Q&A: Felicity Kendal |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/27/felicity-kendal-interview |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309153316/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/27/felicity-kendal-interview |archive-date=9 March 2016 |access-date=15 December 2012 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

Kendal made her stage debut for her family's company aged nine months, when she was carried on stage as the [[changeling]] boy in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''.<ref name="BBC SCD 2010"/><ref name="GALE">{{cite web |title=Felicity Kendal |work=Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television |volume=115 |publisher=Gale |year=2012 |via=Gale in Context: Biography |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1609030202/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=898d089a. |url-access=subscription |access-date=15 April 2024 |archive-date=20 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420121834/https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2Fi.do%3Fp%3DGPS%26u%3Dwikipedia%26id%3DGALE%7CK1609030202%26v%3D2.1%26it%3Dr%26sid%3Dbookmark-GPS%26asid%3D898d089a.&prodId=GPS |url-status=live }}</ref> Five years later she was the Changeling in the same play, and aged nine she was Macduff's son in a production of ''[[Macbeth]]''.{{sfn|Roisman Cooper|2015|p=207}} Her first speaking role was as [[Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Puck]] in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' when she was 12.{{sfn|Roisman Cooper|2015|p=207}}

Kendal's family and their touring theatre company were the inspiration for the [[Merchant Ivory Productions]] film ''[[Shakespeare Wallah]]'' (1965), which follows the story of nomadic British actors as they perform Shakespeare plays in towns in [[History of Independent India|post-colonial]] India.<ref name="GKOBIT">{{cite news|title=Obituary: Geoffrey Kendal|author=Singh, Kuldip|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-geoffrey-kendal-1165113.html|work=The Independent|date=15 June 1998|accessdate=14 October 2020|archive-date=3 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003205419/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-geoffrey-kendal-1165113.html|url-status=live}}</ref> She played Lizzie Buckingham, the daughter of the company's actor-managers, who falls in love with the son of film star Manjula, portrayed by [[Madhur Jaffrey]].<ref name="Merchant Ivory Shakespeare">{{cite web |title=Shakespeare Wallah |url=http://www.merchantivory.com/shakespeare.html |publisher=[[Merchant Ivory Productions]] |access-date=15 December 2012 |archive-date=3 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103003435/http://www.merchantivory.com/shakespeare.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Lizzie's parents face a dilemma between their deep-seated theatrical ambitions and their fears for the welfare of their daughter.<ref name="Merchant Ivory Shakespeare"/> ''[[The Observer]]'' film critic [[Kenneth Tynan]] wrote a positive review of the film, and considered that the role of the daughter was "fetchingly played by the dumpling-faced Felicity Kendal".<ref>{{cite news |last=Tynan |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Tynan |title=More bull trouble |newspaper=The Observer |date=7 November 1965 |page=24 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-more-bull-trouble/145502396/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=17 April 2024 |archive-date=20 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420121834/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-more-bull-trouble/145502396/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Patrick Gibbs]] of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' named Kendal as his actress of the year,<ref>{{cite news |first=Patrick |last=Gibbs |author-link=Patrick Gibbs |title=Films of the year: Manna for a minority |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=31 December 1965 |page=13 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-films-of-the-year/145534204/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=17 April 2024 |archive-date=20 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420121717/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-films-of-the-year/145534204/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and said that, that based on her portrayal of [[Ophelia]] in an extract from ''[[Hamlet]]'' within the film, her performance of that role would "rank with any that [he had] seen".<ref>{{cite news |first=Patrick |last=Gibbs |author-link=Patrick Gibbs |title=The morning after |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=17 December 1965 |page=17 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-the-morning-after/145534420/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=17 April 2024 |archive-date=20 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420121834/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-the-morning-after/145534420/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Speaking to ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' journalist Jasper Rees in 2006, Kendal said that her time in India was "sometimes very hard, sometimes very poor, sometimes ghastly, ghastly, ghastly in all sorts of ways", she did not regret it, and that it was an "amazing way of living".<ref name="REESM"/> She also felt that it prepared her for a career in theatre as she did not have any established expectations about how things should be.<ref name="REESM"/> Aged 17, she moved to England, initially living with her aunt.<ref name="MORLEY82">{{cite news |last=Morley |first=Sheridan |author-link=Sheridan Morley |title=The rigours of a charmed life |newspaper=The Times |date=8 November 1982 |page=11 }}</ref>