‘Only Fools and Horses’ actress Kate Saunders dead aged 62

26 April 2023

‘Only Fools and Horses’ actress Kate Saunders has died aged 62.

‘Only Fools and Horses’ actress Kate Saunders has died aged 62

The TV star turned novelist and journalist was famed for playing policewoman Sandra in the BBC sitcom alongside Del Boy star David Jason and Rodney Trotter actor Nicholas Lyndhurst.

Kate’s passing was announced by her sister Louisa Saunders, who said on Twitter on Monday (24.04.23): “My sister, who we lost last Friday. The warmest, bravest, most generous, and most brilliant woman I will ever know. Heaven knows how we will live without her.”

The ‘Only Fools’ Twitter account added in tribute: “We are sorry to learn of the passing of Kate Saunders, who played policewoman Sandra in the episode ‘The Long Legs of the Law’ in 1982.

“In addition to her acting career, Kate was an award-winning novelist, journalist and critic. Our thoughts are with her family.”

Kate had her only child, Felix, in 1993 with husband Philip Wells, who she married in 1985, and she learned she had multiple sclerosis on the same day as their boy’s birth.

The couple divorced, and Kate’s health declined after Felix’s suicide aged 19.

London-born Kate joined the National Theatre in 1987 and also starred in ‘Angles’ in 1978, ITV’s ‘Playhouse’ the following year and ‘Just Good Friends’ in 1984.

Her first novel, ‘The Prodigal Father’, was published in 1986 and won the Betty Trask prize.

Kate’s publisher Faber Children’s said about her passing: “We are extremely saddened by the death of our beloved author, Kate Saunders.

“Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time. Kate was a sensational author and a National Treasure.

“Brilliantly funny, gracious, compassionate, she will be greatly missed by us all.'”

Kate’s broadcast appearances included BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’, ‘Start the Week’ and ‘Kaleidoscope’, and in 1990 was a guest on the first episode of the BBC’s ‘Have I Got News for You’.

She wrote in the Independent newspaper in 2014 about starring on ‘Only Fools’: “The plot of my episode is simple: Rodney has picked up a policewoman named Sandra and invited her home to the famous flat in Peckham, failing to appreciate that it is crammed with stolen goods.

“I was Sandra, in a revolting pale blue blouse, and I snogged Nicholas Lyndhurst!”