Doncaster stepdaughter of On The Buses star Anna Karen 'pleased' after £400,000 fortune left to EastEnders co-star

The EastEnders actress died in February in a blaze at her home in Ilford, East London with details of her will released this week.

Stepdaughter Gloria Gill, 71, who lives in Doncaster, said Sophie had looked after her mum and dad for many years and she deserved the fortune.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Miss Gill said: 'I was very close to Anna. We used to speak every couple of weeks or so.

'But I wasn't expecting to get any money, I was very pleased that she left it to Sophie.

'I knew she was going to give the money to Sophie. Sophie has looked after my dad and Anna very well and because I live all the way up here I was a bit limited to what I could do.

'She is a lovely girl, Sophie, and she deserves it all. She has really looked after the two of them - my dad and Anna.

'She has known them for years.'

Karen, played downtrodden wife Olive Rudge in the bawdy ITV sitcom between 1969 and 1973 and left £427,197, probate records reveal.

Her will left 65 per cent of her net estate to her close friend Miss Lawrence, 50, after payment of funeral and legal costs, inheritance tax and a £1,500 legacy to another friend.

Miss Karen's will left a further fifth of the residuary of her estate to Miss Gill, the daughter of her actor husband Terry Duggan, who died in 2008.

Another eighth was left to four other friends or relatives and the final 2.5 per cent was left to the Actors' Benevolent Fund.

Miss Karen, who was born in South Africa, performed as a striptease artist to pay her way through drama school. She starred in 74 episodes of On The Buses as well as three spin-off films, portraying the put-upon sister of bus driver Stan Butler played by Reg Varney.

Miss Lawrence played Diane Butcher in EastEnders between 1988 and 1991, followed by a number of guest appearances in the BBC soap during subsequent years.