Pik-Sen Lim

Pik-Sen Lim (Chinese: 林碧笙, born 15 September 1944) is a Malaysian-Chinese-British actress who has appeared on British television since the 1960s. She is best known for playing the character of Su-Lee, the Chinese Communist student in the British sitcom Mind Your Language (1977–79) and playing the killer cleaner in Johnny English Reborn.

Early life

Lim was born under the name of Lim Phaik-Seng in Penang, Malaysia, Straits Settlements (occupied by Japan at the time of her birth), and was the daughter of the palm oil millionaire Lim Cheng-Teik. She attended convent school in Penang, where she was nicknamed "Pixie". Against the wishes of her family, she moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 to study at the London School of Dramatic Art. Here, she changed her name because her friends would pronounce "Phaik" as "fake".

Career

In 1964, she appeared in the hospital drama series Emergency – Ward 10, playing a nurse. There she met scriptwriter Don Houghton, whom she married. Her daughter by him, Sara Houghton, is also an actress, and they were once cast as mother and daughter in Three Thousand Troubled Threads. She also appeared in Don Houghton-scripted Doctor Who serial The Mind of Evil in 1971, and the first three seasons of the sitcom Mind Your Language speaking Hokkien as her Chinese language. Here, she had to speak in an exaggerated, stereotyped Chinese accent, even though her English is perfect.

Her later appearances are roles in the short-lived soap operas Albion Market (1985) and Night and Day (2003), as well as Arabian Nights (2000), The Bill (2005), and as a character in the comedy series Little Britain (2004).

She is the narrator of the video game Dark Souls.

Filmography

Theatre

References

• Ooi, Teresa (16 February 1984), Good times, bad times., The Straits Times 

External links

• Pik-Sen Lim at the Internet Movie Database
• Pik-Sen Lim at the British Film Institute's Screenonline