Honorary degree for Saunders

Comedy actress Jennifer Saunders will don cap and gown today as the 'Ab Fab' star picks up an honorary doctorate.

Saunders, 53, who has recently been treated for breast cancer, will collect the award from Edge Hill University in Lancashire.

The ceremony, alongside hundreds of Edge Hill graduates, will recognise her contribution to the arts as a writer, actress and comedian.

The mother-of-three shot to fame as a member of the Comic Strip collective, where she met husband Adrian Edmondson and comedy partner Dawn French.

French and Saunders worked together for 30 years until bowing out with a series of live shows in 2008, although they reunited last year for a series of BBC Radio 2 shows.

Saunders also created and wrote 'Absolutely Fabulous', in which she starred as fad-obsessed Edina Monsoon alongside stars Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha and June Whitfield.

Her cancer treatment, which ended in March, saw her undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy after a number of malignant lumps were found.

The graduation ceremony takes place at the Edge Hill campus in Ormskirk later today.