Sims plaque unveiled

Joan Sims was a veteran of the Carry On films

A plaque dedicated to the memory of actress Joan Sims has been unveiled at her former home.

Barbara Windsor, who starred with Sims in eight of the Carry On films, unveiled the plaque in Thackeray Street, Kensington, London.

She was due to be joined by other stars of the classic film series including Liz Fraser and Eric Sykes.

John Inman and Eric Hall were also among those in attendance. A celebratory lunch followed the unveiling.

Sims, the longest serving female member of the Carry On team, died in June 2001 at the age of 71.

She played a variety of roles ranging from gym mistress to empress, and became famous for her characters' pretentions and mock-refined accents.

Barbara Windsor starred in many Carry On films with Sims

"To me she was the last of the great Carry Ons," said Windsor at the time of Sims' death.

"Her talent was wonderful, she could do any accent, dialect, she could dance, sing, play dowdy and glam.

She starred more than two dozen Carry On films, making her the longest-serving female member of the team until she parted company with the team after Carry On Emmanuelle in 1978.

Her characters ranged from Belle Armitage, the saloon-owning femme fatale in Carry On Cowboy to the faux-aristocratic memsahib, Lady Jane Ruff-Diamond, in Carry On Up The Khyber.

Later she worked in television, appearing in sitcom As Time Goes By, the BBC's 1994 adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit and the TV movie The Last Of The Blonde Bombshells, with Judi Dench.

She published her autogiography, High Spirits, in 2000.

Sims lived alone at the Kensington flat where the plaque is due to be unveiled.