Kay stayed in Hollywood for a short time following her dream to become a star, supplementing a few film and TV roles with part time work as a waitress.  She didn’t enjoy life in Hollywood and returned to England a couple of years later and found work with the Danziger studios.  She never looked back from there, going on to appear in over 30 films and television shows between 1954 and 1993.

Kay filmed 13 episodes of The Vise from 1955 to 1959, but her best-known TV work was in Knight Errant where she played the female lead Liz Parrish for 36 episodes between 1959 and 1960.



Knight Errant was very demanding with a busy ‘live’ shooting schedule at the Granada television studios in Manchester.  It was the first show of its kind on television, the forerunner of shows like The Avengers. 

Kay’s film career was varied and included roles with many household names in They Who Dare with Dirk Bogarde and in Gypsy with Douglas Fairbanks Junior to name just two. 

More information about Kay's Filmogrpahy is available on the Internet Movie Database (External Link).

Additional information and pictures are available by searching Google. (External Link)

More recently she appeared in an Allan Parker short film called Our Cissy in 1974, several episodes of Lovejoy as a supporting artiste and as Nanny Campbell Black in the 1993 TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Riders.

She also found the time to write a number of scripts and plays, and a novel called the Quest of Caroline Hunt that was published back in 1982.

She met, fell in love with and married Jack McNaughton and they came to live in Castor in 1960 after leaving the artist and acting community of Chelsea behind for a taste of the good life.  By that time she had all but retired from film, following Jack after he retired from the acting profession, during the 1961 Equity strike.  She was 37 and believed the time was right to start a family.  This was the private face of Kay Callard, although she found plenty of time to give to the community as well as her family.


After the birth of John, Walter and Sam she retired from acting to look after her growing young family.  As a mum John, Walter and Sam couldn’t have hoped for better. 

Kay was an accomplished artist.  She taught an art class in the village for a number of years.  The front room at home was the venue for lively classes two nights a week, when Jack and the boys would be banished to their rooms.  A number of people came to her classes and flourished under her tuition.  Each year her pupils would hold an exhibition in the village hall and often sold their work.  As well as painting and drawing, Kay also made jewellery and sculpted.  In fact some of her work can be seen here in the church.  There is an unglazed sculpture by the window of St Kyneburgha.

In fact Kay was very involved in other village activities.  When she first moved here in 1960 she wrote news stories and a column for the local papers about life in Castor and Ailsworth.

When the church decided to celebrate the 500th anniversary of St Kyneburgha, Kay threw herself into helping to organise the event with her usual gusto.  Her film acting experience was called on.  Not only helping to galvanise the pageant performances, starring many people from the village, she took on the role of King Penda, sporting a very dodgy red beard and wig, and even helped to write the script.  She carried her interest in local history further and spent a number of years following her passion for Anglo Saxon history, St Kyneburgha in particular.

Kay was in fact a good storyteller.  She published a novel in 1982 and meant to pen more but family life somehow took her attention away from writing as she spent more and more time caring for Jack.  But always had a tale to tell.  She would often hold court in the Royal Oak on quiz nights, captive but attentive audiences laughing along to stories of her time in film and television.

When she retired from acting and Jack had retired she looked after the family, going to work as a nursery worker at the Peterborough Tree Nursery at Castor and as a nursing auxiliary at Peterborough District hospital.  This highlighted the caring side of her nature.  In fact, she nursed Jack through along struggle with Angina and a prolonged illness prior to his death in 1991.

As a nurse Kay worked nights but would also make sure that Jack and the boys had a cooked breakfast every day.  She was always on hand to tend to the kids’ wounds but was quick to action if they got out of hand.  But she didn’t always get it right. 

On a shopping trip to Stamford she bought the boys each a replica toy tomahawk that had blades made from vulcanised rubber and bamboo handles.  In those days Sam, who was about four or five, would suspend some of his toys, Action Men and Meccano models, on string from the banister over the hall.

On this occasion Walter was running through the hall and up the stairs.  He didn’t notice the Meccano truck hanging there and hit his head on it cutting him.  Kay, who had earlier seen the three boys playing Indians with the tomahawks around the garden, assumed the worst.   A scalping had taken place.  After tending the wounds on Walter’s head the tomahawks were confiscated and burnt and that was the end of our little Indian tribe to a chorus of dismay and protest.

She also provided the family taxi service after Jack stopped driving due to his health.  She could often be seen whizzing around on Yamaha scooter.  She would pick John up from school sports events pulling up on the scooter and beeping the horn much to his embarrassment.  John would hop on the back and they would ride home weaving alarmingly through the Peterborough traffic.  She never learned to drive though.   Many’s the time she has given other people will have been aware watching career around the village on her mobility cart.

Kay was known to the wider world as an accomplished actress and artist.  To her family she was an accomplished daughter, sister, wife, mother and grandmother.