Wendy Richard: The Times Obituary | Tim Teeman's appreciation

Wendy Richard, who secured a place in the nation’s hearts with her television roles over five decades, died yesterday five months after announcing that the cancer she had overcome twice had become terminal. She was 65.

Richard died in the Harley Street Clinic in London with her fourth husband, John Burns, by her side. She married him on October 10 last year soon after announcing that her breast cancer had spread to her kidneys and bones.

Her agent Kevin Francis said: “She was incredibly brave and retained her sense of humour right to the end.”

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Luminaries from the creative world paid tribute to Richard, who was appointed MBE for services to television in 2000.

Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, said that he was “enormously saddened”, adding: “Her countless BBC appearances across decades, especially as Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served? and then as Pauline Fowler in EastEnders, lit up living rooms for millions of British families who regarded her as a member of the family. That was an enormous achievement.”

Bill Treacher, who played Richard’s on-screen husband, Arthur Fowler, in EastEnders, said: “Wendy and I worked together for 11 years and in all that time never quarrelled. We were both totally professional and I am truly saddened to hear this news.”

Esther Rantzen, a friend of Richard, said: “She was courageous, honest, a brilliant talent and she will be greatly missed. She was a woman of huge integrity, she was a terrific, terrific lady.”

Todd Carty, who played Mark Fowler, Richard’s on-screen son, said that she was “a fantastic lady” with “a heart of gold”. He said: “She was, without doubt, a British institution in name as well as talent and will always be remembered not just by me and my family but also by millions of fans who were entertained by her throughout her career.

“I will cherish her memory. It was a pleasure to work with her and an honour to know her. May she rest in peace. Her memory and the entertainment she gave us all will never fade.”

Richard’s career spanned five decades of British television and film since her first appearance in 1961 in the series Stranger on the Shore.

She went on to play Joyce Harker in the BBC’s 1960s soap opera The Newcomers, made appearances in Dad’s Army, The Likely Lads and Up Pompeii!, and became a household name as the impressionable Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served? in 1972-85.

She is perhaps best known for her 21 years playing the redoubtable matriarch Pauline Fowler from the first episode of the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 1985 until her character’s death in 2006. Gossip columns claimed that she had insisted on being written out of the show as she did not like the development of her character’s storyline, with the scriptwriters plotting that she should remarry.

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