Comedy actress Mollie Sugden has died in hospital following a long illness, aged
86.

The Yorkshire-born star of popular sitcom Are You Being Served? died in the
Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford on Wednesday afternoon.

Frank Thornton, who played Captain Peacock in the BBC comedy, said: "Mollie, of
course, was an excellent comedian. She was a jolly good actress."

Of their on-screen chemistry in the long-running BBC sitcom, he said: "You can't
play comedy if you don't get on. It was a wonderful team."

Sugden's twin sons, Robin and Simon Moore, were at her bedside, according to her
agent Joan Reddin.

Ms Reddin began representing Sugden in the 1960s before she became famous with
her role as Mrs Slocombe.

She said: "She was a lovely, lovely person."

Sugden, who lived in Surrey, was married to fellow actor William Moore. She
never fully recovered from his death nine years ago, said Ms Reddin. "They were
very much in love," she said. "She started to go down when he died."

Born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in July 1922, Sugden trained at the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama in London. Her early career was spent in repertory
theatre, where in Swansea in 1956, she met Moore. They married two years later,
when she was 35 and he was 39. Their sons were born six years later.

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