VICAR OF DIBLEY’S ALICE DEAD AT 53
Dawn French pays tribute to ‘a bright spark and loving friend’
DAWN French last night hailed tragic Vicar of Dibley co-star Emma Chambers as “the most loyal and loving friend anyone could wish for”.
Speaking after the actress’s shock death from natural causes at just 53, Dawn said: “She was a very bright spark and I will miss her very much.”
Emma, best known for playing dippy Alice Tinker in the hit BBC sitcom, died on Wednesday night, a statement from her agent confirmed yesterday.
The married star suffered from asthma and lost good friend Charlotte Coleman – who starred with her in BBC black comedy How Do You Want Me? – to the condition in 2001.
She also starred in movie Notting Hill alongside Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, who tweeted last night: “Emma was a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress. Very sad news.” Born in Doncaster, Emma worked in theatre for 10 years before her major break in a TV adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. Her best-known role would soon follow in the shape of dim but loveable Alice Tinker opposite Dawn’s vicar Geraldine Granger.
Emma’s hilarious performances won her the British Comedy Award for Best Actress in 1998. She once told how Dibley fans would stop her in the street. Emma said: “They say, ‘Are you that stupid?’ I look at them and say, ‘Oh, yes. I am dim, dim sum, dim sum dim. Dim, dim, dim, dim’.
“They look at me rather strangely, and I am the one who goes off smiling.”
In 2000 she quit acting for two years after falling out of love with the job, spending her days gardening, walking and cooking. But she returned as Alice in numerous festive and Comic Relief reboots. Emma leaves behind actor husband Ian Dunn.
The couple married in 1991. They have no children.
Last night tributes flowed in for the actress. Writer Emma Freud, wife of Dibley and Notting Hill writer Richard Curtis, said: “She was a great, great comedy performer, and a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.” Notting Hill co-star James Dreyfus described her as “unique & unspeakably funny”.
Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson said he met her “when she was a kid in Doncaster. I am so sad. She was very funny”. Her agent John Grant said: “Emma brought laughter and joy to many, and will be greatly missed.”