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Veteran star of the stage and screen Sheila Hancock has been made a Dame in the New Year Honours list at the age of 87.
The icon of British film attended Dartford County Grammar, now Dartford Grammar School for girls, before embarking on an illustrious career spanning six decades.
Dame Hancock was born on the Isle of Wight in 1933 before the family moved to London and Bexleyheath where she attended Upland Junior school.
When she was 10 she was evacuated to Somerset during the Second World War.
But she returned to the area and in 1948 she got her first glance of the stage at Dartford Grammar after starring as Joan of Arc in a school production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan.
She later trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before starting her career in repertory theatre and made her West End debut in 1958.
The actress would go on to perform as Miss Hannigan in Annie and Mrs Lovett in the musical Sweeney Todd, among other productions.
Her career soon blossomed with TV appearances on the BBC, with roles in sitcoms including The Rag Trade, Mr Digby Darling and Now, Take My Wife. She was later awarded the OBE and CBE for services to drama.
On receiving the honour of Dame, she told the Telegraph she had been "slightly miscast" and was "nothing like a Dame" in reference to her working class roots.
Friend and celebrity Gogglebox co-star Gyles Brandreth said: "There's nothing like this Dame! Congratulations to my brilliant Gogglebox friend and canal companion – she's the best and deserves the best!
"What a lady! What a role model! What lovely news!"
Away from stage and screen, the star has supported numerous charities and has campaigned for improving education including expressing her fears the pandemic-enforced closure of schools may widen the attainment gap between rich and poor.
She is a patron of London HIV charity The Food Chain and worked with London children's charity Kids Company until its dissolution in 2015.
She returned to Dartford in 2015 when she paid a visit to her former school for a signing of her novel Miss Carter's War, which depicted life for young people in post-war Britain.
Dame Sheila’s first husband, the actor Alec Ross, died from oesophageal cancer in 1971.
She later remarried and wed Inspector Morse actor John Thaw until his death, also from oesophageal cancer, in 2002. She has three daughters.
Click here for a full list of Kent people recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours list for 2021.
