Lynda Bellingham dies after cancer battle, aged 66

Lynda Bellingham has died at the age of 66.

The actress and Loose Women panelist passed away in the arms of her husband, Michael Pattemore, at a London hospital on Sunday (October 19).

Her death comes less than a month after she confirmed that she had decided to stop receiving treatment for her cancer, which had spread to her lungs and liver.

Bellingham’s agent, Sue Latimer, said in a statement: “Lynda died peacefully in her husband’s arms yesterday at a London hospital.

“Her family would like to thank the nurses and staff for their tremendous care and support. Actor, writer and presenter – to the end Lynda was a consummate professional.”

Bellingham landed her first major TV role on ITV’s 70s soap General Hospital, in which she played a nurse. In the 80s she appeared as the Inquisitor in the 14-part Doctor Who serial The Trial of a Time Lord and also starred in later series of ITV’s popular drama All Creatures Great and Small.

Famously, she played the family matriarch in Oxo’s iconic gravy adverts between 1983 and 1999.

In recent years, she has featured on the panel of ITV’s Loose Women and presented ITV’s lifestyle show Country House Sunday. She was made an OBE earlier this year for voluntary service to charitable giving.

She married her third husband, Pattemore, in 2008 and has two sons from a previous marriage.

Her book Abridged from Memoir was published earlier this month.