Roy Hudd, who hosted BBC Radio 2’s The News Huddlines for 26 years and also starred in Coronation Street, has died at the age of 83, his agent confirmed.
The all-round entertainer, who also fronted 1969’s The Roy Hudd Show, was renowned for his work with dramatist and screenwriter Dennis Potter.
In the 1990s, he won praise for his roles in Potter’s Lipstick on your Collar and Karaoke.
Hudd also played Archie Shuttleworth in Coronation Street for several years.
He also starred in acclaimed crime drama Ashes to Ashes (2008).
In 2015, he played his first pantomime dame in Dick Whittington and His Cat, the first show at the then newly renovated Wilton’s Music Hall in London.
Other recent credits include ITV’s murder mystery Broadchurch, Benidorm and Casualty.
Hudd first broke into TV appearing on the BBC’s Not So Much A Programme, More A Way of Life, which also featured David Frost, William Rushton, John Bird, Michael Crawford and Eleanor Bron.
He also co-wrote and played the part of Bud Flanagan in the musical Underneath the Arches.
He was born in Croydon, Surrey, in 1936.
One of his earliest jobs was as an artist working under Harry Beck, who produced the famous London Underground map
Hudd was also president of the British Music Hall Society,
“The songs were terrific. They told good stories,” he told the BBC earlier this year.
“The music hall songs have always appealed to me. I was brought up by a gran who always used to sing songs.”
