Original 'Liver Bird' Pauline Collins dies, aged 85

[dutchman]

Born in Exmouth, Devon, in 1940, Collins was raised near Liverpool and started out her career as a teacher.

Her love of the stage led her to take up acting on a part-time basis, and in 1957 she had a cameo role as a nurse in the Emergency Ward 10 TV series.

Her film debut came in Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, playing a fictional dancer in a London striptease nightclub, the Windmill Theatre.

After a number of stage roles, she used her Liverpool accent to land a leading role on The Liver Birds in 1969.

She starred as Dawn in five episodes before she left to be replaced by Nerys Hughes, who played the role of Sandra.

She also starred in five episodes of Doctor Who, but told The Guardian in 2012, external that after appearing in the show as Samantha Briggs in 1967, she was offered another 39 episodes but turned them down.

"I thought it was like a prison sentence. Maybe it would have given me a profile early in my career, but then I would have missed so many things," she said.

It was through acting that she met her husband John Alderton. They married in 1969 and had three children, Nicholas, Kate, and Richard.

Alderton and Collins starred alongside each other in a number of television and film roles, such as ITV's popular series Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she played a maid.

Her later credits included a 2005 TV adaptation of Bleak House and 2015's Dickensian.

She also played Cissy Robson in 2012 film Quartet alongside Dame Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Sheridan Smith.