Patricia Patsy Byrne 13 July 1933 17 June 2014 was an English actress best known for her role as Nursie in Blackadder II as well as Malcolms domineering mother in the ITV comedy series Watching Byrne was educated at Ashford County Grammar School She studied drama at Rose Bruford College before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company playing parts such as Maria in Twelfth Night and Gruscha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Aldwych Theatre in the early 1960s In the 1980s she also worked at Chichester Festival Theatre Byrne starred alongside Tony Robinson in a Series 3 episode of Maid Marian and her Merry Men She played ORD Betty the Tea Lady on the BBC childrens programme Playdays Other roles included appearances in I Claudius 1976 Stealing Heaven 1988 Inspector Morse 1989 Les Misérables 1998 David Copperfield 1999 and Kevin Perry Go Large 2000 as well as numerous radio plays Byrne performed in the 1990 BBC production of CS Lewis The Silver Chair as the giant nanny in the city of the giants From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia