[citation needed] Her career began in pantomime before the Second World War, during which she joined ENSA in Italy to entertain British troops.

[4] Bryan made her stage debut as a child in a pantomime in Manchester, and encouraged by her mother, joined the Oldham Repertory while still a teenager.

After spending six years honing her craft there, she moved to London to develop her stage career, becoming a regular performer in the West End.

[5] In 1955, Bryan made her debut in West End musical comedy with her performance as Lily Bell in a production of A.P.

", "You Never Know with Men", and "It Would Cramp My Style", such was her personal success that the billing outside the theatre was changed after the first night to "Dora Bryan in A.P.

Other credits include her first Shakespearean role, Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1984), Mrs. Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer (1985) and Carlotta Campion (singing "I'm Still Here") in the 1987 London production of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies.

[8] Instantly recognisable from her voice, which became a trademark of her performances, Bryan followed many of her theatre contemporaries into film acting, generally playing supporting roles.

She appeared in similarly stereotypical female roles in other films, for example Gift Horse (1952), The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), The Green Man (1956) and Carry On Sergeant (1958).

She played the Headmistress in The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), and she starred in According to Dora (1968–1969), her own television series for the BBC.

Around this time, she joked with Terry Wogan and Michael Barrymore on their TV shows that she was aged not 70 but "sixty-several" and could still kick her leg higher than her head.

In 2000, she joined the cast of the long-running BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine as Aunt Ros Utterthwaite, and in 2001 she was a guest star on Absolutely Fabulous as June Whitfield's on-screen friend Dolly (originally called Milly).

During her husband's final years, she reduced her public commitments to enable her to look after him, and she suffered with her health, including a serious operation for a hernia.