Frankie Howerd

With his long expressive face and trademark catchphrases like ooh no missus, oh please yourselves and titter ye not - Frankie Howerd had the nation in stitches from the 1940s through to the nineties.

He was born in York in 1917, but moved to London as a young boy when his soldier father was posted to Woolwich.

Early hopes of an acting career were dashed when he failed an audition for RADA, but the opportunity to tread the boards came during World War 2 when he was in concert parties entertaining his fellow soldiers.

He blossomed in the post-war years and his act - much of it scripted by Eric Sykes - was bringing the laughs on radio and in music halls. His film debut came in the early fifties in the comedy The Runaway Bus, then came appearances in the Carry On films and other comedy movies, his own tv shows and the series for which he’ll be forever remembered Up Pompeii.

Frankie Howerd died of heart failure  in April 1992 at the age of 75, the day after the passing of his friend Benny Hill. During his long career on stage, radio, film and television - titter we did.