HOW SHE REVVED UP COMEDY LINES

Paying tribute online, Paddington 2 star Hugh wrote: “Emma was a hilarious and very warm person – and, of course, a brilliant actress. Very sad news.”

Emma suffered from at times crippling asthma. Her close friend Charlotte Coleman, who starred with Emma in black comedy How Do You Want Me? , died of the condition in 2001, aged 33.

Yesterday more tributes poured in from her TV and film pals.

TV broadcaster Emma Freud, the wife of Dibley and Notting Hill writer Richard Curtis, said Emma was “a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.”

Paul Mayhew-Archer, who co-wrote Vicar of Dibley with Curtis, hailed Emma EMMA Chambers was famed for her comic timing and wit as dizzy Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley. Here are some of the favourite lines.

Alice to the Rev Geraldine: “You can call me Alice. Because that’s my name.”

Alice to Geraldine: “I’m totally excited about your first Christmas sermon. It’s just going to be an experience I’ll never forget.”

Geraldine: “Alice, my first Christmas sermon was last Christmas.” Alice: “Oh, yeah, I forgot”. Alice to Geraldine: “I’m reading that fantastic new book from the Bible – The Da Vinci Code!”

Alice to Geraldine: “Well the pregnancy test said I’m not pregnant. The hamster didn’t turn blue.

“Oh yes, it’s very common in Dibley. You go out, you buy a hamster and you wee on it. And if it turns blue, you’re pregnant.” Alice discussing the nativity: “My mum told me Jesus was born in Dunstable”. Alice’s response after Geraldine asks to speak in private: “OK, as long as it’s not about tampons because I just don’t understand them.” In the hit movie Notting Hill, Emma played Honey who says to Martin: “Hi Marty. Ooh, sexy cardie!”