Mark Wright has paid tribute to his grandmother, who starred alongside him on ITVBe reality show The Only Way is Essex.
My heart is broken but so overwhelmed by your support. To know good ole Nanny was loved by so many is the best feeling in the world Thankyou
— Mark Wright (@MarkWright_) December 16, 2015
Nanny Pat became a household name after her grandson signed up to take part in TOWIE.
In 2012, she told the Daily Mail: “Mark started filming for the show and he kept talking about me to the producers and before I knew what was happening I was starring.
“I told him it would just be a one-off thing, but I can’t get out of it now. I can’t go anywhere without getting recognised these days because of the fame.”
Nanny Pat with her daughter Carol (Matt Crossick/PA)
Nanny Pat gained a fan following thanks to her frank attitude and witty one-liners.
She said: “I am a typical Essex girl, well I hope so! I am nice, but I am just plain, unlike all the young girls with their fake tans and big heels. I do love handbags though.”
Nanny Pat (Ian West/PA)
Born in 1935, Pat Brooker had numerous jobs, from factory work to pub landlady to dinner lady.
The matriarch celebrated her 80th birthday on the ITVBe reality show in November, arriving dressed as the Queen in a lavish horse-drawn carriage for a royal wedding-themed party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGB5Qn3IqA&feature=oembed
Surrounded by friends and family, she was given a framed photograph of her late husband Charles Brooker, to whom she was married for 52 years, by her granddaughter Jess.
Nanny Pat released a memoir in 2012 about her life and her childhood in the Blitz-ravaged East End, called Penny Sweets And Cobbled Streets.
In the book, she said: “It was such a terrible thing to live through the war. I don’t think if it happened today half the kids could get through it. I really don’t think they could suffer it.”
