Producer and director James Gilbert, who brought together the talents of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett for The Two Ronnies, has died aged 93.
The BBC's former head of comedy was also responsible for The Frost Report and The Last of the Summer Wine.
The broadcaster's Director-General Tony Hall hailed him as "an absolute giant" in his field.
Gilbert was behind a string of comedy classics including Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
Lord Hall said: "Jimmy was an absolute giant of BBC Comedy and Entertainment, who made millions laugh over so many decades with shows like The Frost Report, The Two Ronnies, and The Last of the Summer Wine.
"He had that magic understanding of how great comedy worked, and he constantly surprised us too with innovation after innovation. Our thoughts are with his friends and family."
Born in Edinburgh in 1923, Gilbert is credited with bringing together Barker and Corbett for their beloved show after he spotted their comic chemistry when working with them on The Frost Report.
He won a Bafta in 1974 for best situation comedy for Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and was also nominated in the same category for The Last of the Summer Wine.
Gilbert was head of BBC comedy from 1973 to 1977 before he was appointed head of BBC light entertainment from 1977 to 1982.
Jim Moir, a later head of BBC light entertainment, said: "Jimmy enjoyed major TV success as a producer and was a leading innovator of his era, but in everything he did he maintained his natural modesty and urbanity."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here