An actress who became one of the most recognised 'TV mums' had some special links with Dorset.

Lynda Bellingham, who died aged 66 of cancer on October 19 2014, touched many lives in the area.

She visited west Dorset on many occasions and her husband Michael Pattemore once ran the West Bay nightclub Scruples.

Lynda, star of the Oxo gravy adverts and a presenter on Loose Women, is buried just over the county border in Crewkerne, Somerset.

She visited Lyme Regis in 2012 to do some filming and one of the places she visited was Alice’s Bear Shop.

Dorset Echo:

The late Lynda Bellingham with councillor Rikey Austin in her Bear Shop,  2012

The shop's Rikey Austin said: “She was lovely, she was actually here filming with Paddy my husband and she was doing something like Lynda Bellingham’s My Tasty Travels.

“They worked together for a few days and hunted for a few fossils.

“She actually did quite a bit in Lyme and I think cooked with the lifeboat crew.

“She was so sweet. You always kind of wonder what they are going to be like in real life but particularly Lynda was the sweetest person.

“She was a real person, she was very caring and very interested in people and warm.

“Occasionally the world loses somebody and you just think the world is not as nice a place now.

“There are people who make the world more interesting and she was one. She was a caring person,”

The actress visited the town with Plymouth-based TV production company Two Four during Lifeboat Week in the summer of 2012.

Lyme lifeboat crew member Mark Gage showed Lynda the finer points of the lifeboat and James Rice demonstrated how to put on the lifeboat crew gear.

Dorset Echo:

Lifeboat man Mark Gage and the late Lynda Bellingham when she lived in Lyme Regis in 2012

Harbour master Grahame Forshaw gave Lynda a guided tour of the harbour aboard his launch.

The programme was scheduled to end with Lynda cooking a meal for members of the crew on the beach by the Powerboat Club.

Lynda husband Michael Pattemore, who once ran the West Bay nightclub Scruples before it became DeVinchies in 1988, decided to bury his beloved wife in Crewkerne cemetery.