14 Facts About Jill Gascoine

Jill Viola Gascoine was an English actress and novelist.

Jill Gascoine was sent to a boarding school, which she said she hated, explaining later that she was ridiculed by schoolteachers.

Early in her career in the 1950s, Jill Gascoine was a soubrette in a Great Britain tour of the Crazy Gang Show.

Jill Gascoine worked alongside Victor Spinetti in a revue in the Irving Theatre, London.

Jill Gascoine played one of the schoolgirls in the film The Pure Hell of St Trinian's, although in her twenties by then.

From 1970 onwards, Jill Gascoine began appearing on television in series such as Z-Cars, General Hospital, Rooms, Dixon of Dock Green, Softly, Softly: Taskforce and Within These Walls.

Jill Gascoine became better known in 1980 when she took the lead role in the ITV drama series The Gentle Touch, playing Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes.

Jill Gascoine appeared in the film King of the Wind opposite Richard Harris and Glenda Jackson.

In October 2009, it was announced that Jill Gascoine was joining the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.

Jill Gascoine was to play the role of Glenda Mitchell, former wife of Archie Mitchell and mother of Ronnie and Roxy, from early 2010.

Jill Gascoine was then left to bring up her two sons alone and did not see Keith after they divorced.

Jill Gascoine suffered from clinical depression for most of her life, which she believed stemmed from her unhappy time in a boarding school as a child.

In 1997, Jill Gascoine was diagnosed with kidney cancer, though the disease was detected early and she made a full recovery.

In June 2013, Jill Gascoine publicly revealed that she had Alzheimer's disease at a Beverly Hills gala which was set up to raise money to fight the disease.