Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor has died at the age of 79 with Covid-19 coronavirus, his agent has confirmed to the BBC.
Tim Brooke-Taylor.
Photo: Getty Images
The entertainer, best known as one third of the popular 1970s show
The Goodies, and
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, died on Sunday.
Goodies co-star Bill Oddie called him a "true visual comic and a great friend".
The third member of the trio, Graeme Garden, said he was "terribly
saddened by the loss of a dear colleague and close friend of over 50
years".
"He was a funny, sociable, generous man who was a delight to work
with. Audiences found him not only hilarious but also adorable."
Oddie recalled some of the
Goodies' sketches in his tribute
tweet, adding: "No-one could wear silly costumes or do dangerous stunts
like Tim. I know it hurt cos he used to cry a lot. Sorry Timbo."
Brooke-Taylor's career spanned more than six decades and his comedic
roots lay in the Cambridge Footlights Club, which he joined in 1960.
Membership of the Footlights brought him into contact with both
Garden and Oddie as well as future Monty Python stars John Cleese and
Graham Chapman.
Cleese paid tribute by saying: "Tim was one of my very oldest
friends, and one that I used to love performing with. He did
'frightened' better than anyone...".
And another member of Monty Python, Eric Idle, revealed that his
career was started in 1963 when he was auditioned by Brooke-Taylor for
an annual comedy revue.
Brooke-Taylor started his own 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.
A host of comedians have paid tribute to Brooke-Taylor on social media.
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."
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 programme
At Last The 1948 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 40 hits, the biggest of them 1975's
The Funky Gibbon - which they memorably performed on
Top of the Pops.
The trio found international fame with
The Goodies, becoming household names in New Zealand and Australia, with shows attracting millions of TV viewers.
In 2011, Brooke-Taylor was appointed an OBE for his services to
entertainment, joining Oddie and Garden in having the same honour.
- BBC
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