According to reports, the actress, best-known for playing Mrs Slocombe in the Croft and Lloyd sitcom Are You Being Served?, passed away at the Royal Surrey Hospital following a long illness.

An actress always in demand, the year 1977, for instance, saw Sugden and the cast of Are You Being Served? move briefly from the BBC Television Centre to Borehamwood to shoot the big screen version of the sitcom at Elstree Studios.

Away from Are You Being Served? Mollie made countless other TV sitcom appearances. Her sitcom credits included: The Liver Birds, Come Back Mrs Noah, That's My Boy, My Husband and I and Grace and Favour.

The Yorkshire TV sitcom My Husband and I also co-starred Sugden's real-life husband, William Moore. Moore, who played Ronnie Corbett's father in the sitcom Sorry!, sadly passed away nine years ago. Mollie is said to have never fully recovered from his death.

One of Mollie’s last public appearances was when she attended Wendy Richard's funeral earlier this year. Back then, Mollie paid tribute to Richard by saying that Wendy will: 'live on in the hearts of so many people'.

Very-much part of my TV viewing life, Sugden, like Richard, will certainly live on in my heart. Thank goodness I have both DVDs and videos to watch which feature some of many of the great performances that Mollie gave.

RIP, Mollie.

A BBC News report about Mollie Sugden (which includes a tribute from Frank Thornton) can be found now by clicking onto the link which is listed on the right.