Sad to report another show business departure: the statuesque Julie Ege died today at the age of 64. One of Robert’s favourite people of 70s popular culture…and not just for the obvious reasons…she cavorted with a disinterested Leslie Phillips in The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins, got dirty with Frankie Howerd in the film version of Up Pompeii and danced the night away with Marty Feldman in Every Home Should Have One. She battled Hammer dinosaurs in Creatures the World Forgot, joined Peter Cushing for his final fight with blood-suckers in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and was turned in to one of The Mutations by Donald Pleasence. She was a vital part of what TV Cream would call ‘the films that criticism forgot’ and will never, herself, be forgotten.

A fond farewell to the legendary ‘Humph’: Humphrey Lyttleton, who died on 25 April at the age of 86. As a jazz musician he is suitably lauded but it is as the chairman of divine silliness on BBC Radio 4’s ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’ that he will leave a gapping hole of inspired laughter. Hazel Court, one time muse of Ken Annakin and the original Huggett daughter in Holiday Camp, died at the age of 82 on 15 April. It is for her contribution to the Hammer horror film: The Curse of Frankenstein, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, and the Roger Corman chillers: The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, that film admirers will best remember her. And finally, two great men of character: Willoughby Goddard, memorable as the rotund and lascivious Gessler in TV’s William Tell, died on 11 March at the age of 81. He contributed portly men of the foam in Carry On Cruising and Double Bunk. As well as the voice of the polar bear in the Fox’s Glacier Mints adverts. Lloyd Lamble, who died on 10 April at the age of 94, chalked up such film appearances as No Sex Please, We’re British and Eskimo Nell, although he was at his very best in senior policeman uniform. Notably in Quatermass II, Night of the Demon, Ealing’s Barnacle Bill and, most cherished of all, as Superintendent ‘Sammy’ opposite lovelorn Joyce Grenfell in the first three St. Trinian’s films. RIP.

Robert will be representing comedy royalty, Leslie Phillips and June Whitfield, at the Collectormania 13 signing event in Milton Keynes. Marking fifty years since playing a couple in Carry On Nurse, the two icons will be signing on Saturday 3rd May only. An official Showmasters photo session is also taking place. For further information and updates please visit http://www.collectormania.com/.

Robert travels to the splendid delights of Wotton House in Buckinghamshire for an invited-guests only try-out preview of Valerie Leon’s reflections on her life and work. With hilarious and poignant anecdotes and copious clips from Carry On, James Bond, Hammer and much more, this promises to be a treat not to be missed. Keep an eye on http://www.valerieleon.com/ or this very website for further information.