After news of her death was shared by her family, Bafta paid tribute to The Good Life star with a post on social media, reading: “We\u2019re saddened to learn of the passing of Dame Penelope Keith, aged 86.<\/p>\n
![\""Actress](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/00249af5-614.jpg\"\/)
\nPenelope Keith<\/p>\n
“A familiar face on stage and screen, Keith won a Bafta for her iconic role in The Good Life in 1977 and another for her work in The Norman Conquests and Saving It For Albie in 1978, with a further three Bafta nominations during her career.”<\/p>\n
Allsopp replied to the post: “It\u2019s \u2018death\u2019, Dame Penelope died, she was an absolute national treasure, she lived & worked and was brilliant and then she died.<\/p>\n
“Dame Penelope did not \u2018pass\u2019, she was not a car or a bottle of ketchup.”<\/p>\n
Allsopp\u2019s comment sparked a heated online debate, over the appropriate language to use when talking about death.<\/p>\n
Responding to the furore, she wrote on X: “It seems I\u2019ve stumbled across the most divisive issue of all time.<\/p>\n
“Those who loathe the use of passed or passing in reference to death & those who prefer it.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m in the loathe camp, I think it attempts to sweep away the profound significance of death, but it\u2019s quite the debate.”<\/p>\n
In a further post, Allsopp asked: “When did we move from saying \u2018sad to hear of the death of\u2026.\u2019 to \u2018sad to hear of the passing of\u2019?<\/p>\n
“Is there any way to stop this? We are already bad enough at discussing death in the UK.”<\/p>\n
Her feelings were echoed by former Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson, who replied: “I loathe \u2018passing\u2019. Loathe it.”<\/p>\n
Announcing the news of Keith\u2019s death, a statement on behalf of her family said: “We are deeply saddened to announce that Dame Penelope Keith died peacefully whilst living with cancer at her home in Surrey where she had lived for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n
“The family is grateful for the care and support she received throughout her treatments, and ask that their privacy be respected at this time.”<\/p>\n
Allsopp pointed out that this language was not reflected by Bafta, writing: “When a family announces that someone they love has died, it is not up to Bafta or anyone else to alter that to passing.”<\/p>\n
She added it was “an expression loathed by both Margo & Audrey,” referring to her characters in sitcoms The Good Life and To The Manor Born.<\/p>\n
Allsopp also described it as “a quasi religious euphemism which sweeps aside the profound nature of death”.<\/p>\n
However, other followers on Twitter pointed out that reactions to grief may vary. One wrote: “It\u2019s not up to you to dictate the language people use in grief.”<\/p>\n
Bafta has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirstie Allsopp said she “stumbled across the most divisive issue of all time” when she blasted the use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-525882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}