Comedian and actor Roy Hudd has died at the age of 83, it has been announced.
A statement from his agent said: “We are sad to announce the passing of the much-loved and amazingly talented Roy Hudd OBE.
“After a short illness, Roy passed away peacefully on the afternoon of Sunday the 15th of March, with his wife Debbie at his side.
“The family would ask you to respect their privacy at this very sad time.”
The Croydon native made his professional debut as a comedian in 1957 at the Streatham Hill Theatre.
In 1958, he joined the Redcoats at Butlin’s Clacton and worked alongside Sir Cliff Richard and Dave Allen.
He broke into television on the BBC’s Not So Much A Programme, More A Way of Life, which also featured David Frost, William Rushton, John Bird, Michael Crawford and Eleanor Bron.
He went on to front the radio sketch series The Illustrated Weekly Hudd and The Roy Hudd Show before hosting BBC Radio 2′s The News Huddlines for 26 years between 1975 and 2001.
An acclaimed actor, he played Archie Shuttleworth in Coronation Street for several years.
In the 1990s, he won praise for his roles in Lipstick On Your Collar and Karaoke and went on to star in the popular crime drama Ashes to Ashes.
More recent acting credits include Broadchurch, Benidorm, Call The Midwife, Midsomer Murders and Casualty.
In 2015, he played his first pantomime dame in Dick Whittington And His Cat, the first show at the then newly renovated Wilton’s Music Hall in London.
“I decided I should really have a go at a dame before I snuff it,” he told The Stage in 2016.
He wrote several books on music hall, re-recorded and restored old music hall records, and appeared in a revival show called The Good Old Days.
The showbiz legend was also the longstanding president of the British Music Hall Society, and chose the genre as his specialist subject when he appeared on Celebrity Mastermind in 2014.
Comedian and writer Kathy Burke led the tributes on Twitter…