Mollie Sugden: a fearsome screen battleaxe

Her portrayal of overpowering and snooty women made her a household name, not least for her talent of bringing a humourous warmth to the most tyrannical of roles.

Born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in 1922, she attended the local grammar school. She went on to study drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she took three major awards in one year.

Despite this promising start, success did not come quickly and she spent many years in repertory up and down the country. Her first job was with Oldham Coliseum Repertory Club.

It was in 1956, while she was working for Swansea Rep at the Grand Theatre, earning about £12 a week, that she met her husband, fellow actor William Moore.

They married two years later, when she was 35 and he was 39. Their twin sons Robin and Simon were born six years later, just as Sugden was becoming a familiar face on television with hit programmes such as Hugh And I, Please Sir! and The Love Of Ada.

She quickly found her strength was in comedy and she was happiest in comedy dramas.

It was as the formidable Mrs Hutchinson in The Liver Birds that she started to show her true potential. It was a series that was so popular in the late 60s and early 70s that it was revived in the late 90s using the original cast.

She was the star of many other comedies, including Come Back Mrs Noah, That's My Boy and My Husband And I, which she made with her husband.

Butit was as the bossy sales lady Betty Slocombe in Are You Being Served? that she was best known. The long-running television comedy was such a hit that a feature film was made based on the series.

She achieved celebrity status, particularly on television, and for a while enjoyed a change of direction in her career with her own slot on the consumer programme That's Life.

Yet her tremendous success backfired in 1988 when ITV bosses decided not to use her in any more programmes.

One programme director at the time was quoted as saying: "If I see another situation comedy starring Mollie Sugden, I will die."

Despite the setback to her career on British television, Sugden was still a highly popular actress.

As she continued to find great popularity on the stage - sometimes working alongside her husband - she found new fame in the United States.

Re-runs of Are You Being Served? transformed both Sugden and co-star John Inman, famous for his catch phrase "I'm free" into cult figures in the US in the early 1990s.

Such was her popularity in America that at the age of 71 she was asked to appear in Donizetti's opera La Fille Du Regiment in a non-singing role.

In Britain, Sugden and Moore were regarded as one of the establishments of showbusiness, with a marriage that had stood the test of time and was full of the vivacity of the couple themselves.

Their private haven away from the world of acting was in a village near Dorking in Surrey.

Moore also continued successfully with his acting career to become a household name through his television work.

He was perhaps best-known for his portrayal of the long-suffering husband and father in the comedy Sorry!, which starred Ronnie Corbett.

It was with great affection that Sugden was seen once again on British television in a revival of The Liver Birds in 1996.

It was almost inevitable that, despite being 74 and playing only a supporting role, she still managed to steal the show.