ITV Coronation Street and Shameless actress Maggie Fox dies 'suddenly' following accident

TV star Maggie Fox has passed away surrounded by her devastated family following an accident. Maggie's close pal Sue Ryding said her nearest and dearest are in a 'state of shock' following her sudden death on Monday (March 21).

Sue, her comedy partner of 40 years and co-artistic director at LipService Theatre, announced the tragic news on Twitter and said she was 'heartbroken' by the loss of her friend.

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Sue said: "It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Maggie Fox, my comedy partner of 40 years and co-Artistic Director of LipService. Maggie passed away yesterday with her family around her.

"Consequently the Spring Tour of Chateau Ghoul has been cancelled. As you can imagine I am completely heartbroken."

Paying tribute to her 'comedy genius' friend she typed: "I met Maggie when we were Drama students at Bristol University in the 1970's. We were in a very serious production of Ibsen's The Lady From the Sea but for some reason the audience was on the floor laughing.

"A tragedy for Ibsen (he was good at those) but the launch of an epic comedy partnership.

"Our theatre company LipService was officially launched in 1985 and we have written 22 original comedies, touring all over the world, managing to have children in between!

"It's notoriously difficult to present new work in theatre and we are really proud that we managed to do so and to build an audience for it." Sue says a new digital version of their live comedy show Chateau Ghoul, which had already been filmed, will be shared later this year in memory of Maggie.

"We are still all in a state of shock as this was very sudden