Madge Allsop has died.
Actress Emily Perry, who played Dame Edna Everidge's glum-faced, brow-beaten bridesmaid, died in an English retirement home on Wednesday, aged 100.
Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) commented that he thought if Dame Edna was to pay tribute, she'd say: "I'd wish I'd been nicer to her."
I have from time to time wondered if a Madge Allsop-type figure sitting near the pulpit of most preachers would be a good foil for those times when the preacher is a bit excessive and over-the-top. To have a Madge sitting deadpan and unresponsive would be the perfect foil - a counter-measure to any flights of ego.
In her blankness Madge was a perfect foil to Dame Edna's flambouyance - a reminder that some balance helps the world go around as it should.
