Blake's 7 star Jacqueline Pearce has died at the age of 74 shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

The actress, best known for playing Supreme Commander Servalan in the popular BBC science fiction series, died at her home in Lancashire.

Her friend John Ainsworth said: "She was outrageous, she was very honest and very straightforward, which didn't always go down very well, but you knew where you were with her.

"She liked a glass of champagne and liked everyone to have a good time with her, and of course she was a brilliant actress and everyone who worked with her remembered her very fondly."

Pearce was born in Woking, Surrey in 1943 and had a difficult childhood after her mother left the family when she was 16 months old – leaving her living between her father's house and that of a foster family. She trained at the stage school Rada and Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio in Los Angeles, before embarking on her acting career.