Editing Doris Speed (section)

==Early life and career==
Speed was born in [[Chorlton-cum-Hardy|Chorlton]], [[Lancashire]] (later part of [[Manchester]]) on 3 February 1899.<ref name=":0">'Doris Speed; Obituary' (1994) ''[[The Times]]'' [London, England], 18 Nov, 21, available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A115606920/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=3a69fba7 [accessed 20 Jan 2022].</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Index entry|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=eJjeCNKO%2BdLEKafThdOLkQ&scan=1|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS|accessdate=21 January 2022}}</ref> As a child, she toured with her parents George, a singer and Ada (née Worsley) Speed, an actress, moving to different schools almost every week.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituary - Doris Speed|pages=31|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93073725/obituary-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref> Her debut came to her at the age of three years old, as she toddled onstage in a [[nightdress]] to sing a song about a [[golliwog]]. Two years later, she made her acting debut as the velvet-suited infant Prince of Rome in a Victorian melodrama, called ''The Royal Divorce''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Speed was later quoted as saying "Acting was all I ever wanted to do".<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituary - Doris Speed|pages=31|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93073725/obituary-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref>

Speed took a course in shorthand and typing at a local technical college in 1915, and shortly after finishing it, took a job with [[Guinness]] in Manchester to support her parents' stage careers. She joined Guinness as a clerk, but over her 41 years working for the company, rose to become personal assistant to the regional manager.<ref name=":0">'Doris Speed; Obituary' (1994) ''[[The Times]]'' [London, England], 18 Nov, 21, available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A115606920/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-STND&xid=3a69fba7 [accessed 20 Jan 2022].</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituaries - Doris Speed|pages=16|work=The Independent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93107990/obituaries-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref> However, she was also an active member of the local amateur dramatics group, The Unnamed Society, who were well regarded, and she received good notices in [[The Guardian|''The Manchester Guardian'']] for her roles with the group from 1937 onwards. Appearing in The Unnamed Society's 1949 production of ''[[Hamlet]]'', the paper's reviewer noted that Speed "acted splendidly" playing the Queen.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1949-04-05|title=The Unnamed Society - "Hamlet"|pages=3|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93112609/the-unnamed-society-hamlet/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref>

She also worked with Chorlton Rep and other companies. On stage, she performed a number of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearean]] parts, led the chorus of women in ''[[Murder in the Cathedral]]'', played Mrs Sullen in ''[[The Beaux' Stratagem]]'', the mother in [[The Lady's Not for Burning|''The Lady's Not For Burning'']] and in ''[[Amphitryon 38]]'' by [[Jean Giraudoux]], appeared as the Greek beauty [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituaries - Doris Speed|pages=16|work=The Independent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93107990/obituaries-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref> 

Following the end of the [[World War II|Second World War]], Speed appeared in hundreds of radio plays, and subsequently went into television. In ITV's early days on air, she was in two [[ITV Granada|Granada Television]] series: ''[[Shadow Squad]]'', a 1950s police television series, in an episode written by [[Tony Warren]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituary - Doris Speed|pages=31|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93073725/obituary-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref> and a year later, in its spin-off, ''Skyport'', as the tea lady. Speed was in two television plays, ''The Myth Makers'' and ''Vital Statistics'', in addition to the 1959 [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer Studios]] [[Stanley Baker]] vehicle ''[[Hell Is a City]]'', set in her native Manchester.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=1994-11-18|title=Obituaries - Doris Speed|pages=16|work=The Independent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93107990/obituaries-doris-speed/|access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref>