Hi-de-Hi! star Diane dies

Holland played snooty ballroom dancer

Diane Holland, who played snooty ballroom dancing instructor Yvonne Stewart-Hargreaves in Hi-de-Hi!, has died at the age of 78.

She began her career as a singer and dancer, and was the sister-in-law of the sitcom’s co-writer Jimmy Perry. But she once said: ‘I am not at all like Yvonne I would hate people to think that.’

Holland also played Celia Littlewood in Grace and Favour, Perry and David Croft’s follow-up to Are You Being Served? Before she became famous in the holiday-camp sitcom, she also appeared in an episode of Sykes – coincidentally as a character also called Yvonne – and two episodes of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

She had been suffering from bronchial pneumonia up to her death on January 24.

Published: 17 Feb 2009

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