Carol McGiffin's affectionate tribute to Lynda Bellingham

TV personality Carol McGiffin has written a poignant tribute to her friend and former 'Loose Women' colleague Lynda Bellingham, saying that she feels "very lucky and privileged" to have known her.
Bellingham died on October 19 after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 66.
McGiffin remembered Bellingham as "a true luvvie and a brilliant actor who loved her craft" in her regular column for the Sunday Mirror.
"I worked with Bellers (a name I gave her when she joined Loose Women) for four years on the show and I always looked forward to her being there because of her glorious grumpiness," the broadcaster wrote.

"I loved her disdain and contempt for all things fake, hypocritical and celebrity driven... She was also a great Loose Woman, even though it wasn't something she relished, calling it 'silly celebrity nonsense'."
McGiffin said that the pair stayed in contact after Bellingham's departure from the ITV daytime show in 2011, quipping that they "used to enjoy secret lunches where we'd bitch and moan about some of the women. But mostly, we'd laugh."
McGiffin concluded by saying that she would remember Bellingham at Christmas "with a real tree, as she was planning, and I'll make a fairy of her as a panto godmother. And I will toast her not with a glass, but with a giant bottle."

Bellingham rose to fame through appearances in TV dramas such as 'All Creatures Great and Small' and became synonymous with Oxo's TV advertising campaign, where she played the mother of a suburban family.