Carey was a TV comedy actress who established herself in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, before turning to soap in 1978 when she was offered a role in Coronation Street.

She played Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, in four episodes, before returning to the fictional Greater Manchester town of Weatherfield 18 years later to play the debt-laden Joyce Smedley from 1996 to 1997.

Joyce met an untimely end when she was run over as she ran to chase her dog, Scamper - her exit one of a series of action-packed farewells as part of a "cast cull" by then new producer Brian Park.

In 1990, Carey returned to sitcom in A Kind Of Living, before returning to soap in 2007 to play Vivien March in BBC One's Doctors for two years. In their tribute, the official Doctors X account (formerly Twitter) described her as a "gifted actress who breathed life into the beloved character".

Carey's agent Katie Threlfall confirmed her death, but no further details were given. The actress had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, according to reports.

Former Doctors director Steve Hughes, who worked on the series between 2005 and 2010, was among those paying tribute to Carey, writing on Twitter: "Sad to hear that Anita Carey has passed. I really enjoyed working with her on Doctors back in the day."

Meanwhile, Doctors writer Roland Moore tweeted: "Saddened to hear about Anita Carey. She was a joy to write for as Vivien on Doctors and it was great to meet her once at the soap awards."

Carey's breakthrough role was that of Susan Chambers in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? in 1973, the same year she met her future husband and fellow actor Mark Wing-Davey while she was playing Miss Heasman in the touring theatre show Butley.

The following year, the couple appeared in a production of The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde at the Crucible Theatre, before Carey starred in the West End production of Hobson's Choice.

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Other programmes included sketch show One-Upmanship, based on Stephen Potter's spoof self-help books, as well as the comedy-drama Beryl's Lot playing one of the on-screen children of actress Carmel McSharry.

She also starred in John Finch's drama The Spoils Of War, playing Martha Blaze, before appearing as Joyce Gould, the devoted wife of a Labour MP, in ITV's 1986 adaptation of Jeffrey Archer's novel First Among Equals.

Carey later moved to New York after Wing-Davey, whom she married in 2002, became chairman of the graduate acting programme at New York University in 2008.