Liz Smith, the veteran actress who played Nana in TV comedy classic The Royle Family, has died at the age of 95.
A family spokesperson said Smith passed away on Christmas Eve. She had turned 95 earlier this month.
Her death comes in the same year as her Royle Family co-star Caroline Aherne, who passed away from lung cancer in July.
Born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire in 1921, Smith's mother died in childbirth and her father later abandoned her. "One day he met me coming out of Sunday school," she recalled. "He said 'Bye bye kid, I'll write' and backed away. That's the last I saw of him."
Smith married in 1945 but divorced 14 years later and brought up her two children on her own. Her professional acting career only began as she approached her 50s, the big break coming when she was cast in director Mike Leigh's debut feature, Bleak Moments. She then starred in Leigh's first television film, Hard Labour and once said: "I owe everything to Mike."
At the age of 85, Smith was honoured with Best Actress at the British Comedy Awards for her portrayal of the ailing Nana in The Royle Family. She won a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA in 1985 for her performance opposite Maggie Smith in the film A Private Function.
Smith's many other screen credits included the films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, City of Ember and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and the TV series Lark Rise to Candleford, The Vicar of Dibley and 2point4 Children. She also starred in a West End production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame.
But it is as Nana that she will be best remembered. Her final appearance was in the 2006 episode The Queen of Sheba, which focussed on Nana's passing. The episode was repeated by the BBC on December 22 this year - just two days before Smith's death.
Speaking at the time of the original broadcast, Smith said her performance in the episode was the most draining of her career.
"I was so upset because I think, really, the base of it was that I was going to be left out of any future Royle Familys," she explained.
"I felt it was an ending of a whole thing. It was not just one lift; it was the whole concert of the story. They each say goodbye in a way that it's almost, 'Goodbye, it's being lovely knowing you'. In the end it was absolutely wonderful to do."
Smith's Royle Family co-star Ralf Little said it was "devastating" to lose her and Aherne in the same year, while Coronation Street actor Andy Whyment, who also appeared in The Royle Family, described her as a "fantastic actress".
Devastating to lose two members of my second family in one awful year. RIP Liz Smith. Goodbye Nana. Xxx
— Ralf Little (@RalfLittle) December 26, 2016
