No laughing matter for sitcom legends going to war over actors’ charity
Penelope Keith, right, with Peter Bowles in To the Manor Born.
In To The Manor Born, Dame Penelope Keith played a chatelaine who was forced out of her beloved stately home after the death of her husband. This week, the actress, 82, will battle for control of the illustrious actors’ charity from which she was ousted as president after 32 years.
On Friday, the Actors’ Benevolent Fund (ABF), which helps thespians in hardship and whose patron is the King, will hold an emergency meeting at which a vicious backstage drama will burst into the open.
The ABF, which has an endowment of more than £30 million, was founded by Henry Irving, star of the Victorian stage, in 1882, and its past presidents include John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. Its members are the great and the good of British theatre and film, understood to include Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Joanna Lumley and Jim Broadbent.
This week’s showdown stems from a rift between former and current trustees, which included accusations that some of the remaining faction of trustees withheld financial information. This contributed to the Charity Commission investigating the ABF this year.
A group of longstanding trustees, including Keith, who were all ousted from its council in February, accuse some remaining trustees of “sham governance” and allege that Friday’s meeting is “a covert attempt to hijack the charity and legitimise a cabal seeking the unlawful removal of some 50 per cent of [the] council”. While many of those excluded — who also include the I, Claudius actress Dame Siân Phillips and The Likely Lads’ James Bolam — say they now “want to move on”, they hope first to return the charity to good order. The second camp, the remaining trustees, have put forward a motion for the meeting that the excluded say will seal their ousting.
Last Friday, the excluded trustees won the backing of enough members to ensure that a letter reflecting their position must be sent out before the meeting.
“The excluded trustees have been treated appallingly,” said Keith. “A public argument is the last thing we wanted; it is an unnecessary distraction from the essential work the fund undertakes and a waste of charity resources. However, we have been throttled at every turn and it is essential we get this message out.”
Bolam, 87, who starred in New Tricks on BBC1, said: “Our headquarters on 6 Adam Street [in London’s West End], which was a place of creativity and goodwill, is now more like Bleak House. This dispute should have been resolved a long time ago.”
Ahead of a meeting of its council in May, Phillips, 89, and fellow actress Rosalind Shanks, 72, another excluded trustee, were barred from the building by a bouncer. It is understood they had emailed to confirm they would attend, but the guard had photographs of the excluded trustees so as to deny them entry. Sources within the ABF say that David Harvey, the charity’s interim general secretary, described the bouncer as “a greeter”.
The Charity Commission is understood to have warned the remaining trustees last month that it was in breach of its rules because it has no president or honorary treasurer after the oustings, and that the failure to make appointments constitutes “misconduct and/ or mismanagement”. Its letter also raised concern about a lack of financial governance.
The commission said: “We are monitoring compliance with an action plan issued to the charity and have strongly encouraged all parties to seek mediation and a resolution to the ongoing dispute.”
The row, first reported in Private Eye, began during the pandemic, with tension exacerbated by meetings on Zoom. The ousted trustees allege that they were not given financial information when they made reasonable requests. This led them to ask the Charity Commission to carry out a review of the fund’s governance, finances and financial controls. They claim they were excluded in February after taking this step. The excluded trustees have received legal advice that their ousting breached the law.
Jonathan Ellicott, former general secretary of the ABF, also raised a grievance against Keith, alleging that she had bullied him.
However, an independent review by an HR consultant found that this claim was unwarranted. Ellicott left the charity at the end of March.
The ousted trustees say that they were simply making requests for detailed financial information from him.
Keith added: “All we are seeking is clarity and transparency. We can’t allow ourselves to be excluded for seeking it or for the charity to be hijacked in this way.” In April, Keith said that she had alerted the King, then the Prince of Wales, to the situation: “I wrote to him that there was a bit of trouble at mill.” He has worked closely with the charity. In 2020, he and the Queen Consort recorded the poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas for the ABF.
The ABF’s current trustees said: “There were many cumulative reasons behind not re-electing the former post holders . . . Following the decision, the current trustees sought expert and independent legal advice from three law firms, all of whom confirmed that the trustees’ actions were in accordance with the ABF’s constitution and governance processes . . .
The Charity Commission also stated that it was assured the new trustees were responding appropriately to the concerns raised.”
On Friday, the Actors’ Benevolent Fund (ABF), which helps thespians in hardship and whose patron is the King, will hold an emergency meeting at which a vicious backstage drama will burst into the open.
The ABF, which has an endowment of more than £30 million, was founded by Henry Irving, star of the Victorian stage, in 1882, and its past presidents include John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. Its members are the great and the good of British theatre and film, understood to include Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Joanna Lumley and Jim Broadbent.
This week’s showdown stems from a rift between former and current trustees, which included accusations that some of the remaining faction of trustees withheld financial information. This contributed to the Charity Commission investigating the ABF this year.
A group of longstanding trustees, including Keith, who were all ousted from its council in February, accuse some remaining trustees of “sham governance” and allege that Friday’s meeting is “a covert attempt to hijack the charity and legitimise a cabal seeking the unlawful removal of some 50 per cent of [the] council”. While many of those excluded — who also include the I, Claudius actress Dame Siân Phillips and The Likely Lads’ James Bolam — say they now “want to move on”, they hope first to return the charity to good order. The second camp, the remaining trustees, have put forward a motion for the meeting that the excluded say will seal their ousting.
Last Friday, the excluded trustees won the backing of enough members to ensure that a letter reflecting their position must be sent out before the meeting.
“The excluded trustees have been treated appallingly,” said Keith. “A public argument is the last thing we wanted; it is an unnecessary distraction from the essential work the fund undertakes and a waste of charity resources. However, we have been throttled at every turn and it is essential we get this message out.”
Bolam, 87, who starred in New Tricks on BBC1, said: “Our headquarters on 6 Adam Street [in London’s West End], which was a place of creativity and goodwill, is now more like Bleak House. This dispute should have been resolved a long time ago.”
Ahead of a meeting of its council in May, Phillips, 89, and fellow actress Rosalind Shanks, 72, another excluded trustee, were barred from the building by a bouncer. It is understood they had emailed to confirm they would attend, but the guard had photographs of the excluded trustees so as to deny them entry. Sources within the ABF say that David Harvey, the charity’s interim general secretary, described the bouncer as “a greeter”.
The Charity Commission is understood to have warned the remaining trustees last month that it was in breach of its rules because it has no president or honorary treasurer after the oustings, and that the failure to make appointments constitutes “misconduct and/ or mismanagement”. Its letter also raised concern about a lack of financial governance.
The commission said: “We are monitoring compliance with an action plan issued to the charity and have strongly encouraged all parties to seek mediation and a resolution to the ongoing dispute.”
The row, first reported in Private Eye, began during the pandemic, with tension exacerbated by meetings on Zoom. The ousted trustees allege that they were not given financial information when they made reasonable requests. This led them to ask the Charity Commission to carry out a review of the fund’s governance, finances and financial controls. They claim they were excluded in February after taking this step. The excluded trustees have received legal advice that their ousting breached the law.
Jonathan Ellicott, former general secretary of the ABF, also raised a grievance against Keith, alleging that she had bullied him.
However, an independent review by an HR consultant found that this claim was unwarranted. Ellicott left the charity at the end of March.
The ousted trustees say that they were simply making requests for detailed financial information from him.
Keith added: “All we are seeking is clarity and transparency. We can’t allow ourselves to be excluded for seeking it or for the charity to be hijacked in this way.” In April, Keith said that she had alerted the King, then the Prince of Wales, to the situation: “I wrote to him that there was a bit of trouble at mill.” He has worked closely with the charity. In 2020, he and the Queen Consort recorded the poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas for the ABF.
The ABF’s current trustees said: “There were many cumulative reasons behind not re-electing the former post holders . . . Following the decision, the current trustees sought expert and independent legal advice from three law firms, all of whom confirmed that the trustees’ actions were in accordance with the ABF’s constitution and governance processes . . .
The Charity Commission also stated that it was assured the new trustees were responding appropriately to the concerns raised.”