Comedy writer Eddie Braben, the "third man" behind the successful duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, died yesterday aged 82, his manager said.
Norma Farnes said Braben, who also wrote for Ken Dodd, died following a short illness.
Ms Farnes said: "It was Billy Cotton Jnr at the BBC who recognised the brilliance of Eddie's writing was the ideal marriage that would guarantee the success of Morecambe and Wise
"He is survived by his loving wife Dee, three children and six grandchildren."
Sir Bruce Forsyth, who worked with Braben on Play Your Cards Right, said: "This is sad news, it really is. He was a fantastic writer."
The Strictly Come Dancing host added: "What he did for Eric and Ernie was incredible - I wish I could have been doing the kind of shows he had written.
"His jokes and style of writing will be sorely missed in the business."
Ms Farnes added: "Eddie was a very humble man, a very quiet man and a very private man.
"He had a lot of integrity, which is in short supply in this business.
"I have to say – and he would have disagreed with this – that writing came easy to him, even on bad days."
Fellow Liverpudlian Ken Dodd worked with Braben for more than a decade.
The comedian said: "He was a brilliant comic scriptwriter and a brilliant man.
"He made me laugh a great deal. He was a wonderful writer."
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 hereComments are closed on this article