Virginia Stride (born Virginia Thomas in Yokohama, Japan) is a British actress of stage and screen who first came to public attention on television in the 1960s. She was the first wife of the actor John Stride (1936–2018), whom she met when they were studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and in 1964 she introduced the first programme to be seen on BBC2. Virginia Stride played the recurring role of BD Girl Katy Hoskins in Z-Cars (1962–64), the long-running BBC television series a ...