Joan Sims Dies

Veteran comedy actress Joan Sims died this week (28 June), aged 71. One of the last surviving members of the Carry On team, Sims appeared in 24 of the 29 instalments of Britain's longest running comedy film franchise, making her debut in the second movie, Carry On Nurse, in 1958. Sims also appeared in several of the popular Doctor films (including Doctor At Sea in 1955), The Bells Of St Trinian's (1954), Trouble In Store with Norman Wisdom (1953) and the hospital comedy Twice Around The Daffodils (1962). Born in Laindon, Essex in 1930, Sims trained at RADA and made her way into movies via West End revues in the 1950s. Her debut film was Colonel March Investigates in 1952, while her TV credits included the part of Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton in the Worzel Gummidge series and Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit in 1994. Sims also performed at the Bristol Old Vic and the Chicester Festival and one of her final appearances was last year's TV drama, The Last Of The Blonde Bombshells. Joan Sims 1930 - 2001