Have Broom, Will Travel

Jean Marsh is still best-known to most American audiences for her Emmy-winning role as Rose the head parlor maid on the British series “Upstairs, Downstairs,” which she co-created. Theater-goers in London and New York also know her as a prime Shakespearean. Little did she or we know that she’d end up being the new Margaret Hamilton.

“I don’t know why this is, but the last four parts I’ve played have all been witches,” says Marsh. The most recent of those is as Morgana, King Arthur’s evil sister, in a new version of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”--updated and tailored for young “Cosby Show” star Keisha Knight Pulliam--that airs on NBC Monday at 8 p.m.

“Before I did this, I played another version of Morgana over here on television, for the first four episodes of a new series of ‘Dr. Who,’ which was terrific fun. And before that I played the wicked queen of Mordor in ‘Willow,’ and before that I was the wicked witch in ‘Return to Oz.’ So somehow it seems to have become my specialty. . . . But I’m not really like that.”

The real, mild-mannered Marsh is now on sabbatical from acting to write a historically oriented book of English walking tours, “with at least one church and pub”--but no covens--on each walk.

Marsh doesn’t consider her non-theatrical work to be slumming. “When I was young, it was considered a bit declasse, working in film and television, but now I see that it’s a worthwhile medium. You have to find a way of having all the energy and all the strength of the theater, without making people step back from the camera and put their fingers in their ears. I find it intriguing to work out.

“I tend to choose the part more than the medium now.”