Actress Haydn Gwynne dies aged 66

English actress Haydn Gwynne, who starred in Drop the Dead Donkey and The Windsors on TV, and in Billy Elliot the Musical on stage, has died aged 66.

She played Billy's dance teacher in the West End and on Broadway, being nominated for Tony and Olivier awards.

Other roles included Queen Camilla in Channel 4's The Windsors and Margaret Thatcher on stage in The Audience.

Gwynne was due to return to the West End last month but pulled out after being diagnosed with cancer.

In a statement on Friday, her agent said: "It is with great sadness we are sharing with you that, following her recent diagnosis with cancer, the star of stage and screen Haydn Gwynne died in hospital in the small hours of Friday 20 October, surrounded by her beloved sons, close family and friends.

"We would like to thank the staff and teams at the Royal Marsden and Brompton Hospitals for their wonderful care over the last few weeks."

Gwynne broke through in TV drama Nice Work in the late 1980s before finding wider fame and a Bafta nomination for playing cynical and stoical journalist Alex in topical satire Drop the Dead Donkey.

Her other TV credits included Peak Practice, Merseybeat and the BBC's Rome, in which she played Julius Caesar's wife Calpurnia.

She received further Olivier nominations for her performances on stage in City of Angels in 1994, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2015, and The Threepenny Opera in 2017.

She was due to appear in a new West End production of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, but her withdrawal in early September was attributed at the time to "sudden personal circumstances".

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.