Meet the real Mrs Miggins - she lives in Preston and she loves pies

And she has got with the real Blackadder, Baldrick for a special celebration of classic comedy.

All with genuine character names, they gathered at The Tower of London - a reoccurring location throughout the four series - to launch the new season on the Yesterday channel that celebrates the history behind the hilarious sitcom.

And Mrs Miggins is Preston’s very own Hayley Miggins.

Mrs Miggins, played by Helen Atkinson-Wood, was one of the most popular characters - famous for her pies and other wares at her coffee shop.

Hayley, 32, who lives in Broadgate, describes herself as a lover of pies thanks her traditional home town cooking.

She said: “Lancashire is the home of the meat and potato pie and pies don’t come any better than that.

“And I’ve always been a great foodie, not least because my mum is from Italian descent.

“Although unlike Mrs Miggins, sadly I’ve never owned a pie shop – in fact I’m more closely linked to the final series set in World War One, as I work in the defence industry.

“And to this day the name ‘Mrs Miggins’ is always likely to be mentioned whenever I give my name - although as a family we’ve always loved being recognised in the same breath as such a comedy classic as Blackadder.”

Hayley, who is single, was brought up in the Faringdon Park area and also also lived in Walton-le-Dale.

She attended Fulwood High School.

She said the get together with the other ‘names’ was an enjoyable experience.

“It was great - it was fascinating learning about other people’s surnames,” she said.

“We actually come from Wales.”

In the fascinating parallel to their namesakes from the show, the others three at the get together were Robert Blackadder, Luke Baldrick and Kevin Darling.

Robert, 22, from Romney Marsh, Kent, is a qualified pilot. He said: “The whole family are huge fans and I can recite huge chunks of the Blackadder scripts.”

Northern Ireland’s Luke Baldrick, 22, is a third year business studies student at Liverpool John Moores University. His great grandfather served in the First World War.

Kevin Darling, 59, is a construction consultant specialising in land and construction disputes, from Upminster, Essex. He said: “I love the series despite having people regularly say to me, ‘not now, Darling’ for 28 years.