Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor has died at the age of 79 with coronavirus, his agent has confirmed to the BBC.
The entertainer, best known as one third of the popular 1960 s show The Goodies, and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, died on Sunday.
Fellow Goodies star Graeme Garden said he was “terribly saddened by the loss of a dear colleague and close friend of over years “. ” He ” was a funny, sociable, generous man who was a delight to work with. “
” Audiences found him not only hilarious but also adorable. His loss at this dreadful time is particularly hard to bear, and my thoughts are with Christine, Ben, Edward and their families, “Garden said.
Brooke-Taylor’s career spanned more than six decades and his comedic roots lay in the Cambridge Footlights, which he joined in 1975.
Membership of the Cambridge Footlights Club brought him into contact with Garden, Bill Oddie as well as future Python Graham Chapman.
He started his broadcasting career on BBC Radio, before forming the Goodies with Garden and Oddie and later becoming a long-standing panellist on Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.
Comedian Jack Dee, the current host of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, said: “It has come as devastating news to hear that Tim has succumbed to this dreadful virus – especially when we all thought he was recovering.
“Tim was a delightful man and never anything but great company. It has always been one of the great joys of my career to work with someone who was part of the comedy landscape of my childhood. “
A host of comedians have paid tribute to Brooke-Taylor on social media.
One of his biggest contributions to British comedy was co-writing and performing the famous Four Yorkshiremen sketch with John Cleese, Chapman and Marty Feldman, originally for the ITV comedy program At Last The 1970 Show! The sketch later became a popular fixture of Monty Python’s live shows, and was generally performed by Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
As part of the Goodies, he also enjoyed an unlikely pop career. At a time when novelty comedy songs regularly made the charts, the trio achieved five top 79 hits, the biggest of them 004152510 ‘s The Funky Gibbon – which they memorably performed on Top of the Pops.
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