With their own individual careers firmly established long before they first met, Judy Buxton and Jeffrey Holland are now recognised as one of the best known acting couples in the business.

Hailing from the heart of England’s Midlands, Jeffrey made his acting debut as Frank Mullins, the Judges Clerk in Henry Cecil’s play No Fear or Favour at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham before completing four years of repertory work at The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry where he gained a vast amount of experience in all forms of performing genre from Shakespeare and drama to comedy, musicals and pantomime. Proving to be the perfect grounding, Jeffrey went on to appear in the highly prestigious Chichester Festival playing Jodelot and a pastry cook in Cerano de Bergerac, directed by the legendary Jose Ferrar. Next came The Edinburgh Festival as Snug the Joyner in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Stephano in The Tempest before joining the cast of David Croft and Jimmy Perry’s Dad’s Army in London’s West End. It was to prove the catalyst in him being cast in future Croft and Perry productions. Following a particularly hilarious portrayal as the dim-witted but hugely talented Aircraftsman Ormanroyd in It Ain’t Alf Hot Mum, he became a household name starring as the loveable holiday camp comic Spike Dixon in the iconic sitcom Hi de Hi. His success continued as the stuffy footman James Twelvetrees in You Rang M’Lord and the pompous station master, Cecil Parkin in Oh Dr Beeching.

No stranger to the world of light entertainment, Jeffrey has appeared in such programmes as The Kenny Everett Show, The Les Dennis Laughter Show and Russ Abbott’s Madhouse, creating many memorable characters. He also counts himself very fortunate to have taken part in the 50^th Anniversary celebration of The Goon Show on Radio 2’s entitled Goon Again in which he assumed the mantle of the late great Peter Sellers..

Much of Jeffrey’s work in recent years has been in the theatre where highlights include the roles of John Smith in Cooney’s Run For Your wife, Elwood P Dowd in Harvey, Jeeves in By Jeeves, George in Victoria Wood’s play Talent and Rafe Compton in Spring and Port Wine at The Mill at Sonning.

It was in the theatre while working on a production of The Gingerbread Lady in the mid nineties that Judy and Jeff’s paths crossed on a professional basis for the first time. The play enjoyed a short season at Windsor and Sheffield but it was to be almost two years before they were to meet again, this time with the relationship taking a more personal turn. This time in an amazing twist of fete, they were cast opposite each other in the Ray Cooney farce Out of Order which took them on an exotic world tour visiting such places as Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Saigon, Abu Dhabi and Guam and quite literally transformed their lives forever. Judy and Jeff were married at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park in September 2004, since when they have been cast together in plays and pantomimes on numerous occasions. They are quick to stress that this is not a criterion for either of them, merely coincidence but they do confess to particularly enjoy working together as it not only allows them to spend more time with each other, especially at Christmas but also saves on mobile phone bills! Despite their obvious closeness, both Judy and Jeff keep their working relationship completely professional, treating each other as they would any fellow actor on stage. It is a formula that works exceptionally well as has been proven in the various productions they have appeared in.

To that end they have toured extensively both in the UK and abroad in such productions as Ray Cooney’s Caught in the Net, Funny Money and Run For Your Wife, Ayckbourn’s Confusions, Cooney and Chapman’s There Goes The Bride at the Vienna English Theatre, Edward Taylor’s Murder by Misadventure and the 25^th Anniversary Calibre Production of the hilarious comedy Allo Allo by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. Here they took on the mantles of Rene Artois and Michelle of the Resistance alongside actress Vicki Michelle who reprised her original role as Yvette. The show initially toured for fourteen weeks opening in Stevenage at the Gordon Craig Theatre on 29^th August. Such was its success that following a short break for pantomime, the tour resumed for a further four months finally coming to an end in June 2009. Most recently, they have starred as husband and wife, Peter and Linda Bridges in the brilliantly crafted and funny comedy It’s Never Too Late by Ron Aldridge which enjoyed a highly successful UK tour last year and in complete contrast but equally brilliant, the husband and wife team of Rafe and Daisy Crompton in Bill Naughton’s classic Spring and Port Wine.

Added to this, they have become quite a double act when it comes to panto. Since their marriage the couple have appeared together as Dame and Fairy on numerous occasions the most recent of which saw them appear as Fairy Organic and Dame Trott in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Palace Theatre, Redditch in 2009.

Although there are no current plans for the couple to work together in the immediate future, one thing is for sure. Audiences are in for a real treat when they do!