Legend Mollie’s early days at rep

Tributes to Are You Being Served?

Veteran TV star

Comedy actress Mollie Sugden, whose first job was with Oldham Coliseum Repertory Theatre, has died in hospital after 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.

Her 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 in “Are You Being Served?”

She said: “I represented her for more than 30 years and I was a very close friend as well. She had had a long illness and various problems but it was very quick in the end.

“Her twin boys were with her and she faded away. She was a lovely, lovely person — a great professional.”

Sugden, who lived in Surrey, was married to fellow actor William Moore.

She never fully recovered from his death nine years ago, Ms Reddin said.

Best known for her comedy roles often playing battle-axes, Sugden also appeared as the fearsome Mrs Hutchinson in “The Liver Birds”.

But Ms Reddin said that although “Are You Being Served?” was her most famous show, Sugden was “too good” an actress not to do drama as well and her career spanned a variety of roles.

Frank Thornton, who played Captain Peacock in “Are You Being Served?” told the BBC: “Mollie, of course, was an excellent comedian.

“If you can play comedy, you can play anything — you can play tragedy as well. And if you can only play tragedy, you can’t play comedy. She was a jolly good actress.”

Of their on-screen chemistry he said: “You can’t play comedy if you don’t get on. It was a wonderful team.”

The BBC’s head of comedy Mark Freeland said: “She will be remembered as a truly funny and instantly recognisable actress — a star of 1970s British comedy.

“She lit up the screens in both ‘The Liver Birds’ and most famously, ‘Are You Being Served?’

“Her daftly enormous purple rinse and never-to-be-forgotten catchphrase are the stuff of comedy legend and she takes her place as one of TV’s iconic funny women.”

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 including Oldham, and in Swansea where she met Moore. They married two years later, when she was 35 and he was 39. Their sons were born six years later.