She intended becoming a concert pianist; but after her fiancé was killed in action, she married, had a daughter, and worked as a dancing teacher in Notting Hill.

They put on exhibition dances, had a residency at the Piccadilly Hotel, and after a visit to the United States were credited with introducing the Charleston to Britain in 1925.

They continued to perform together until Mills was forced to give up dancing, after breaking her leg on stage in Cape Town.

In 1942, during the Second World War, she was on her way back from entertaining troops in France when she was involved in a serious car accident, which left her hospitalised for the next two years.

She suggested that the top of her piano could be used as a stage for puppets to illustrate her stories, and a disused marionette of a mule, whom she called "Muffin", was used.

[4][3][6] Later, Mills and Muffin were joined in the BBC's For the Children spot by Prudence the Kitten, Mr Peregrine the Penguin, Sally the Sea-Lion, Louise the Lamb, Oswald the Ostrich, and Morris and Doris the field mice.

[3] Annette Mills was married twice, with a daughter, Molly Blake, by her first husband, Henry McClenaghan; her second marriage, to Robert Sielle, ended in divorce.