Carla Lane has died.

A prolific comedy writer, she will be best remembered for hit 1980s domestic sitcom Bread, and the 1970s series Butterflies, starring Wendy Craig.

Lane, born Romana Barrack, had lived in her birth city of Liverpool since 2009. She died this morning at Stapely Care Home in the Mossley Hill district of the city.

Her family say in a statement: "With heavy hearts we said goodbye to our darling Carla today.

"But with smiles on our faces we also take this opportunity to reflect on her incredible achievements, all of which make us so unbelievably proud to be part of her family. We were very lucky that her quick wit, determination and passion brought Liverpool to life on screen for others to share."

On her (now defunct) website, Lane spoke of herself: "Spurred on by the thought of being able to have a dog, Carla married when she was in her teens. She had two sons, a nice husband, and she lived in a nice home in a nice road. But each night, while her family slept, she sat and wrote. Success broke in 1970 when her first scripts were accepted and The Liver Birds was born."

The Liver Birds was co-created with Myra Taylor. It was a smash hit sitcom about a pair of young women sharing a flat together in Liverpool and ran for nine series from 1969 and was revived for a tenth outing in 1996.

From success with The Liver Birds, Lane quickly became established as one of Britain's top sitcom writing talents, regularly penning programmes based around female figures and relationships. Butterflies followed a woman in an unfulfiling marriage, tempted by the prospect of an affair with another man, whilst hit late 1980s comedy Bread (pictured) ran for over 70 episodes across 7 series.

Lesser known is that Lane was the most frequent writer for Sid James's ITV sitcom Bless This House, penning 25 of the show's 65 episodes, 15 co-written with Taylor.

In a prolific writing career that spanned four decades, she also created or wrote for comedies including Solo, Luv, ...And Mother Makes Three, The Mistress and Searching.

Outside of television, Lane was a well known supporter of animal rights and enjoyed a long affiliation with a number of charities, including Animaline, which she ran from her West Sussex home until retiring to Liverpool due to ill health 2009. She also worked closely with The Carla Lane Animals in Need sanctuary in Liverpool, which still runs today, aiming to rescue and re-home all types of animals. Last year she opened a new £315,000 special care unit at the centre.

Carla Lane was awarded the OBE in 1989. In 2003 she handed back the award in protest that the CBE was awarded to the head of a scientific firm known for animal testing.

The BBC Genome Blog recently published a post about Carla Lane's comedy legacy.