Anna Karen, best remembered as Olive in iconic 1970s sitcom On The Buses, has died in a house fire.

She was 85.

Born in South Africa on 19th September 1936 to Irish and English parents, the actor excelled in working class, east-end roles, finding national fame as Olive, the sister of protagonist Stan, in the long-running comedy favourite.

The programme and character's popularity was such that, four years after the series ended, she reprised the role in The Rag Trade, another comedy from the same writers.

Newspaper reports indicate that Karen was killed in the fire at her terraced home yesterday evening, in Ilford, East London.

Three fire engines and at least 20 firefighters are reported to have attended the scene at around 10:30pm after neighbours saw smoke and flames coming from the property's ground floor, but found her already dead inside the property.

Moving to London at the age of 17 after falling foul of her home nation's strict apartheid laws, she soon found work, initially as a striptease artist, and later across a number of small film roles.

As well as three box office-smashing On The Buses movies, Karen appeared in Carry On Loving, Carry On Camping and The Sandwich Man.

Whilst filming Camping she and Barbara Windsor forged a lifelong friendship, which led to Karen's casting in Wild, Wild Women - a suffragette sitcom by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, who would later create On The Buses - and later appearances together in EastEnders, where she played Aunt Sal alongside Windsor.

Also enjoying a long stage and pantomime career, Anna Karen was married to fellow actor and comedian Terry Duggan until his death in 2008.

Her other television roles included Goodnight Sweetheart, ...And Mother Makes Five, Milk-O!, Roland Rat: The Series and The Dick Emery Show.