Mind Your Language star Pik-Sen Lim dies at 80

Other credits include Johnny English Reborn, Doctor Who and Little Britain

Actress Pik-Sen Lim – who played Chung Su-Lee in the 1970s sitcom Mind Your Language – has died aged 80.

She was also known for Chin Lee in the 1971 Doctor Who serial The Mind of Evil and as an assassin who posed as the Queen and a cleaner in the 2011 Rowan Atkinson comedy film Johnny English Reborn.

Born in British Malaya to Malayan-Chinese parents, Pik-Sen moved to England to pursue an acting career at the age of 16.

Her other credits include Coronation Street, Little Britain and being the narrator for the Dark Souls video game series.

The British Film Institute described Lim as ‘the most recognisable Chinese actor on British television throughout the 1970s and 80s’

Her character in Mind Your Language – set in a classroom with various ethnicities learning English – was a stereotypical Chinese communist woman who worked as a secretary at the Chinese Embassy, constantly mixed up her ‘r’ and ‘l’ sounds, and was never seen without her Little Red Book of Mao.

Actor Daniel York Loh paid tribute to the star in an Instagram post calling her ‘an iconic figure… so affectionate, so witty, so brilliantly scabrous and absolutely honest about the rubbish this industry deals actors of our heritage.’