The Vicar of Dibley actress Emma Chambers has died of natural causes aged 53, her agent has confirmed.

Best known for playing Alice Tinker in the BBC sitcom which starred Dawn French, Chambers also featured in Notting Hill alongside Julia Roberts, the Daily Mail reports.

Notting Hill co-star Hugh Grant led tributes to her yesterday, calling her a 'warm person' and 'brilliant actress'.

Dawn French said: 'Emma was a very bright spark and the most loyal & loving friend anyone could wish for. I will miss her very much.'

Her agent said Chambers, who died from natural causes on Wednesday evening, would be 'greatly missed'.

Emma Chambers was a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress. Very sad news.

— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) February 24, 2018

Jon Plowman, executive producer of The Vicar of Dibley and former head of comedy at the BBC, said: 'This is a sad day. Emma was a gifted comic actress who made any part she played - no matter how ditzy or other worldly - look easy.

'To create a much loved comic character as she did, you have to be every bit as bright and clever as Emma always was.

'She was great fun to work with and adored by all the cast and crew of Vicar of Dibley. She will be missed and our deepest condolences go out to her family and friends.'

Chambers starred alongside French from 1994 to 2007 in the much loved sitcom and won the British Comedy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 1998.

Once asked if she resembled her portrayal of the dippy Alice Tinker in real life, Chambers rejected the comparison with the words: 'I'm a cynical old bitch.'
In Notting Hill, Chambers played Honey, Hugh Grant's eccentric younger sister and the romantic interest of Rhys Ifans' character Spike.

Her friend and fellow broadcaster Emma Freud tweeted: 'Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. We're very very sad.

'She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.'

I was regularly humped like this by the unique & beautiful spark that was Emma Chambers. I never minded. I loved her. A lot . pic.twitter.com/imzkoyKja9

— Dawn French (@Dawn_French) February 24, 2018

Vicar of Dibley co-writer Paul Mayhew-Archer, 65, said he was 'devastated' by her passing, which was said by her agent to be of natural causes.

'I loved working with her, she was stunning,' he said. 'I used to love watching her going over her lines in rehearsal, she would read them to herself and try to find the perfect delivery.

'I am devastated, she was a key part of the Vicar of Dibley. It is one of those strange things, because when you start working on something, you think it is one thing and it becomes something quite different.

'Alice became completely central to the piece, it was just perfect.

'Most sitcoms have an idiot of some sort but she managed to make her idiot completely different, it was amazing.

'The last time I saw her was the last episode, all of my memories are to do with the programme, her passing was so sudden.' 

A statement from her agency read: 'Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many.'

Chambers, who lived in Lymington, Hampshire, is survived by her husband, fellow actor Ian Dunn.