Roberta Taylor: EastEnders actress dies aged 76

In 2005, the actress published a memoir, Too Many Mothers: An East End Childhood, in which she explored her complex family life in east London.

Speaking about the book in magazine interview, she recalled that she had grown up in a "peculiar family" in which she and her siblings and cousins were "swapped" between her mother's brothers and sisters.

Taylor said she had not seen her father since she was a child and had no wishes to encounter him again.

She said: "My book is the story of the love of my mum's life, a married man she met when she was 18, my father.

"At the time it was very difficult - my birth stopped her being free for the rest of her life.

"It's a gritty story and ultimately it's one of personal triumph. But it's also a story that says, 'If you trust too much, you're dead'."

Taylor was married to Peter Guinness, also an actor, and had one son, Elliott, with her former husband, Victor Taylor.