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Richard Briers

Richard Briers was a comfortable and comforting part of British life from his entry onto the national scene in Marriage Lines in 1961 until his death this February. Generation after generation came to love his distinctive voice – at once warm and staccato – and his almost twitchily nervous appearance on our screens, as if he felt like he didn’t belong there. He evidently did, chosen by scores of directors of TV series and films. Add to those the many voiceovers for which he was responsible – the wonderful kids’ cartoon Roobarb for example, Noah and Nelly, and innumerable adverts, and the scale of his background presence in our lives becomes clear. If we set aside his ebullient radio turn as Bertie Wooster to Michael Hordern’s Jeeves there are three marvellous works for which he will be most remembered: The Good Life, one of our greatest sitcoms; Ever Decreasing Circles, at once funny and painful; and the film version of Much Ado About Nothing made with Kenneth Branagh where he was perhaps stretched – to great effect - more than most other directors ever asked him to be. He was a comic and when pressed dramatic hero, and a true national treasure who will be hugely missed.

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