'Super Gran' star Gudrun Ure dead aged 98

Gudrun Ure has died aged 98.

The ‘Casualty’ actress was best-known for her starring role in the 1980’s children’s TV series ‘Super Gran’, in which she played the title character who protected the residents of Chiselton from a series of evil villains after gaining superpowers once she had been struck by a magic ray.

Her niece Kate McNeill confirmed Gudrun has passed away at her London home.

Reflecting on her “really kind” aunt, Kate told the BBC: “She had a very memorable voice.

“I remember my husband was watching ‘Casualty’ one night, and I went, ‘that's Gudrun’ as soon as I heard the voice.”

Gudrun was cast in the beloved ITV programme, which ran from 1985 to 1987, aged 59, and the show’s low budget meant she had to perform her own stunts.

For her work on ‘Super Gran’, the actress won an International Emmy award in the Children and Young People category in 1985.

Gudrun, who appeared in the programme alongside comic Sir Billy Connolly, 81, also featured a series of celebrity cameos across the show’s 27 episodes, including from late footballer George Best, comedian Spike Milligan, ex-‘Doctor Who’ actor Patrick Troughton, darts champion Eric Bristow and shot put icon Geoff Capes.

The programme, based on a series of books written by Forest Wilson, proved to be hugely popular and was sold abroad to roughly 60 countries.

As well as ‘Super Gran’, Gudrun appeared in several radio plays and TV shows including ‘Midsomer Murders’, ‘Where The Heart Is’ and ‘The Crow Road’.

She also starred opposite Orson Welles in a stage version of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, which was directed by the Hollywood legend himself in 1951.

Gudrun was married to her husband John Ramsay for more than 40 years before his death in 2008.

The couple had a stepson, Gordon.