Fanny Cradock - Later Years

Later Years

Fanny and Johnnie Cradock spent their final years living at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. Fanny and Johnnie Cradock became regulars on the chat show circuit, and also appeared on programmes such as The Generation Game and Blankety Blank. Fanny appeared alone on Wogan, Parkinson and TV-am. When she appeared on the television chat show Parkinson with Danny La Rue and it was revealed to her that La Rue was actually a female impersonator, she stormed off the set. Her final BBC appearance was on Wogan in 1986, and her final television appearance was on The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross in 1987.

In 1991, four years after Johnnie's death, family friend Phil Bradford found Fanny living in a flat in Chichester where she was living in squalor and seemed disorientated. He sought power of attorney and moved her to a nursing home at Ersham House Hailsham, East Sussex. She died following a stroke on 27 December 1994; the cause of death was cited as 'cerebrovascular atherosclerosis'. Both Fanny and Johnnie were cremated at Langney Crematorium, Eastbourne. There is a memorial plaque and a rosebush in the grounds of the crematorium for both of them.