Hi-De-Hi and You Rang M'Lord? actor Paul Shane dies aged 72 following a short illness

TV actor and comedian Paul Shane, best know for his role as Ted Bovis on hit sitcom Hi-De-Hi has died aged 72.
His agent said he died surrounded by his family at a hospice in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, earlier today after a short illness.
He leaves behind three daughters and six grandchildren. His wife Dory died in 2001.


Born in 1940, as George Frederick Speight in Thrybergh, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, he achieved fame late in life, after first working as a miner in Yorkshire.
An accident down the mine aged 27 saw him pensioned off, and he became an entertainer in the pub and clubs around south Yorkshire. 



A small role in a 1979 episode of Coronation Street as Frank Roper was to be the starting point for more than a decade on the TV screens of the UK.
Comedy writer Jimmy Perry spotted Shane in the soap opera, and cast him in the role of scheming Ted Bovis in his new holiday-camp sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.



The series ran from 1980 until 1988, and won a BAFTA for Best Comedy Series in 1984. It was based on Perry's experiences working as a Redcoat in Butlins.
In 2004 the show was voted 40th in a list of Britain's Best Sitcom.
The episodes saw Shane's character, Ted Bovis, involved in a series of scams to con the campers out of money.
Bovis also spent his time terrorising timid campsite boss Jeffrey Fairbrother, played by Simon Cadell.
When Perry and co-writer David Croft, who also wrote Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, wrote their next show, You Rang, M'Lord?, they cast Shane to play Alf Stokes.


The show, which looked at life upstairs and downstairs of a aristocratic family in the 1920s, ran from 1990 to 1993, with Shane, a keen singer, also employed to sing the theme tune.
Between 1995 and 1997, Shane played Jack Skinner in two series of Oh, Doctor Beeching!.  He then spent his time performing in theatres, including performances in pantomimes.
He didn't disappear off TV screens altogether however, and enjoyed recurring roles in television series Holby City (11 episodes in all) and Emmerdale, where he played Solomon Dingle for 8 episodes.
In May 2009, he underwent a life-saving heart operation at Sheffield Northern General Hospital and made a full recovery.