Actress Jean Alexander, best known as Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden, has died aged 90.

Alexander, who played the legendary character from 1964 until 1987, died in hospital three days after her 90th birthday.

She had been admitted to Southport hospital for tests but was discharged after a couple of days and allowed to return to her nursing home, her niece Sonia Hearld, 64, said.

But on her birthday on Tuesday, she was readmitted to hospital, where she later died peacefully on Friday.

Mrs Hearld, of Selby, North Yorkshire, said: "My aunt died sadly earlier today."

Despite becoming Britain's best-loved cleaner on the ITV soap, known for wearing overalls and her hair in rollers, she made her debut on Coronation Street in 1962 as landlady Mrs Webb.

Alexander and her on-screen husband Bernard Youens, who played Stan, were two of the most iconic characters of the long-running soap.

One of her most memorable scenes in 1984 was when she broke down after receiving her on-screen husband Stan's belongings after his sudden death.

Youens died shortly before his character was killed off in the soap in 1984 prompting hundreds of fans to send her condolence cards.

She received a Royal Television Society Award in 1985 and a BAFTA Television award in 1987, eventually retiring from acting in 2012.