Pauline Fowler, the former star of BBC's EastEnders, has died at the age of 65, the organisation announced earlier.
Pauline, it said, had collapsed and died 'on set', leaving both characters and viewers of the show stunned at her sudden demise.
Pauline's storylines usually focused on drudgery, money worries and family troubles. The matriarchal stalwart of the fictional London community of Albert Square, she was portrayed as a stoic, opinionated, battle-axe - a family-orientated woman who alienated her 'fick' and Aids-ravaged kin with overbearing interference.
She was regularly used for comedic purposes in scenes with her launderette colleague, Dot Cotton, and scriptwriters wrote many feuds into her role.
Prior to marrying her long-suffering husband, Arthur, and moving to Walford, where EastEnders is set, Pauline was a Sales Assistant at Grace Brothers department store, where she worked alongside the very camp Mr Humphries, who is also dead.
Pauline is survived by her children Martin, and Michelle, who is hiding in America somewhere and refuses to come back.
She will be sadly missed. Michelle, that is.
