Lesley Joseph Lesley Joseph Lesley Diana Joseph (born 14 October 1945) is an English actress and broadcaster, best known for playing Dorien Green in the television sitcom "Birds of a Feather" from 1989 to 1998, and again since 2014. Other television credits include "Absurd Person Singular" (1985) and "Night and Day" (2001–03). Her stage roles include UK touring productions of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (2005), "Calendar Girls" (2011) and "Annie" (2015). In 2018, she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, for the original West End production of "Young Frankenstein". Joseph was born in Hackney, London and
British sitcom consciously avoids traditional situation comedy themes and storylines to branch out into more unusual topics or narrative methods. "Blackadder" (1983–1989) and "Yes Minister" (1980–1988, 2013) moved what is often a domestic or workplace genre into the corridors of power. A later development was the mockumentary in such series as "The Office" (2001–2003). The first British television sitcom was "Pinwright's Progress", broadcast by the BBC from 1946 to 1947, but the form did not take off until the transfer of "Hancock's Half Hour" from BBC radio in 1956. Hancock biographer John Fisher dates the first use of the term 'situation comedy'