English actress turned novelist Jill Gascoine passed away yesterday on the 29th of April. She was 83 years old and was suffering from Alzheimer’s for quite a long time. In June 2013, 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. In August 2016 her husband Alfred Molina reported that she was "in a very advanced stage of Alzheimer's", and had been in a specialist care home for over two years. 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 the late 90s, Gascoine was diagnosed with kidney cancer, since the disease was detected early, she was able to make a full recovery.

Gascoine began her acting career in theatre in the 1960s and had regular roles at the Dundee Repertory Theatre. She was also an actress in the Downfield Musical Society in Dundee. Her early work also included collaborations with future film and television director Ken Loach. Jill Gascoine was best known for her role as Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes in the 1980s television series The Gentle Touch and its spin-off series C.A.T.S. Eyes. In the 1990s, she also became a novelist and published three books.