Sad to round up a few show business deaths of people who I admired professionally and adored socially. Just before Christmas that twinkling wag Jeremy Lloyd died at the age of 84. As an actor – in everything from ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ to ‘Doctor in Clover’ – he had an impeccable, raffish charm. As a writer – of such perennial sitcom favourites as ‘’Are You Being Served?’ and ‘’Allo, ‘Allo’ – he had a robust flair for the bawdy. A fortnight later, Jeremy’s ‘Whodunnit?’ co-creator Lance Percival died at 81. As a member of the ‘That Was the Week That Was’ team, his satirical calypsos touched several nerves and he made his mark in the films of Gerald Thomas – ‘Carry On Cruising’, ‘Twice Round the Daffodils’, ‘Raising the Wind’, ‘The Big Job’ – as often as not opposite his good friend Sid James.

Brian Clemens, who died at the age of 83, remains one of the most imaginative and inspiring of television writers. Creating ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Professionals’ and ‘Thriller’, his Hitchcock-like anthology series, Brian also wrote and directed the revolutionary Hammer horror film ‘Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter’. A brilliant, modest man, his work philosophy was simple: “There’s no mystery to writing: arse to chair, pen to paper”. Rest in peace, gentlemen.