Kathy Staff, star of 'Last of the Summer Wine', dies

Kathy Staff, the actress famed for her performance as the Yorkshire battle-axe Nora Batty in the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, has died at the age of 80.

With her wrinkled stockings and repeated angry dismissals of the amorous advances of her neighbour Compo – played by the late Bill Owen – Batty became a household name in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, paying tribute to her, colleagues said she was nothing like the character with whom she became synonymous.

Alan Bell, the producer of Last of the Summer Wine said: "She would play a scene quite gently and I'd say 'But Kathy, you've got to harden up, because that's who we all love – the hard, tough Nora Batty'.

"She said 'Why can't I just be soft and gentle at times?' I said, 'Maybe some time we will.' She was such a good lady, she was religious and she'd never do anybody any harm. But above all that she was thoroughly professional."

He told the BBC that her trademark wrinkled stockings had initially been seen as a one-off joke. I think they were just an aside at one point, but Terry Wogan picked up on it and he really made her a star," Bell said.

Born in Dukinfield in Greater Manchester, Staff appeared in the theatre as well as a number of well-known television programmes, including Crossroads, Emmerdale Farm and Coronation Street. She also starred in Open All Hours with Ronnie Barker and David Jason and played Mrs Blewitt, a character with some similarities to Batty.

But it was her role in Last of the Summer Wine – where she appeared in 243 episodes from the very first in January 1973 – that was to give her lasting fame.

"We're distraught, but we have very fond memories of her," Bell added.