On television, she is known for playing Gran in Till Death Us Do Part (1967–1975), Madge Kettlewell in Sykes (1972–1978), Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton in Worzel Gummidge (1979–1981), an eccentric youth hostel owner in Victoria Wood (1990), Mrs Wembley, the cook with a liking for sherry, in On the Up (1990–1992), and Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By (1994–1998).

She decided that she wanted to pursue show business during her teens, and soon became a familiar face in a growing number of amateur productions locally.

One of her first stage appearances was as Miranda Bute in the Langdon Players production of Esther McCracken's comedy Quiet Wedding in May 1946.

She did succeed in being admitted to PARADA, the academy's preparatory school, and after her successful fourth attempt, she joined and was trained at RADA,[1] graduating in 1950 at the age of 19.

The film Carry On Sergeant had been a huge success at the box office and in the autumn of that year, Rogers and director Gerald Thomas began planning a follow-up.

Also in 1986, Sims appeared in the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who in the four episodes of The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet as Katryca.

She also played Betsey Prig in a star-studded adaptation of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit (1994) and Lady Fox-Custard in Simon and the Witch.

As of 2009, both "Spring Song" and "Men" are available for the first time through iTunes and other download services, as well as on CD as part of re-issues of the comedy compilation albums Oh!

Sims writes Had house husbands been in vogue in those days we'd have made an excellent couple, since Tony was not very successful as an actor and I soon became the main breadwinner.

If we had been able to accept that I would go out and earn the money and he would concentrate on running the home, things might have turned out better... For three years I was besotted with this loveable reprobate, but then the icing on the cake began to chip off and the love started to wear thin.

Of the break-up, which was finally triggered by Sims returning from a tour to find Baird had not done any washing or housework, she wrote "I could tell that he was genuinely heartbroken, and so was I, but I had to do it for my own survival.

This was worsened by the deaths of her agent Peter Eade, her best friend Hattie Jacques and her mother, all within a two-year period, after which she fell into alcoholism.

The tone of Sims's 2000 autobiography High Spirits is revealing (though not sensationalist), frank and sometimes mordant: In Doctor at Sea I was cast again as the Plain Jane character ... my rival in love was played by ... Brigitte Bardot.

Having been disappointed to miss out on the part in a BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair, she is somewhat crestfallen to discover that there are only two entries on her 'Trivia' page on IMDb.

Her lifelong friend and stand-in, Norah Holland[13] spoke of the doctors' amazement at her strength and courage throughout her final illness.

[14] On 27 June 2001, ten minutes before she died, Holland spoke to her gently about Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and their time on the Carry On films.