This may not mean a huge amount to those outside the UK but he was a key figure in British comedy from the off.
Here he is performing the classic "Python" 4 Yorkshiremen sketch before Python was formed.
Quote:
Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor has died at the age of 79 with coronavirus, his agent has confirmed to the BBC.
The entertainer, best known for The Goodies and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, died on Sunday.
Fellow Goodies star Graeme Garden said he was "terribly saddened by the loss of a dear colleague and close friend of over 50 years".
"He was a funny, sociable, generous man who was a delight to work with," Garden said.
"Audiences found him not only hilarious but also adorable. His loss at this dreadful time is particularly hard to bear, and my thoughts are with Christine, Ben, Edward and their families."
Brooke-Taylor's career spanned more than six decades and his comedic roots lay in the Cambridge Footlights, which he joined in 1960.
He started his broadcasting career on BBC Radio, before becoming one of the members of the anarchic Goodies TV show and later as a long-standing panellist on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Comedian Jack Dee, the current host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, said: "It has come as devastating news to hear that Tim has succumbed to this dreadful virus - especially when we all thought he was recovering.
"Tim was a delightful man and never anything but great company. It has always been one of the great joys of my career to work with someone who was part of the comedy landscape of my childhood."
Born in Buxton, Derbyshire on 17 July 1940, his father was a solicitor and local coroner who had been wounded in the First World War and was serving in the Home Guard when Brooke-Taylor was born.
A favourite program on BBC Light from my "holiday mother" was I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again ... which I liked more than T H E favourite, the Archers.
Never saw him on tv, though (as far as I remember).
It was part of mine too, this is the first celebrity Coronavirus death that's affected me.
He was also in the last season of One Foot In The Grave.
Having said that I can't find any excerpts on youtube.
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izzythepush
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Sun 12 Apr, 2020 07:35 am
@Walter Hinteler,
A while back an old boy passed aware leaving years of Radio 4 programmes on tape. This was quite good news as a lot had been wiped. He recorded most things, but not The Archers, and I'm with him on that. When that comes on Radio 4 goes off.
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izzythepush
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Sun 12 Apr, 2020 07:43 am
Obituary on the BBC website which includes a meeting with Salvador Dali.
John Cleese, Stephen Fry and David Mitchell have paid tribute to "wonderful comedian" Tim Brooke-Taylor after his death at the age of 79.
Cleese, who co-starred with Brooke-Taylor in the 1960s and 70s, said he was "a great performer and companion".
Fry described him as "a hero for as long as I can remember", while Mitchell said "the world has been robbed".
The former member of 1970s trio The Goodies died on Sunday after contracting coronavirus.
Cleese, who met the comedian at Cambridge University and went on to appear with him on stage and screen, said the news meant he had "just lost the will to be silly".
Fry added that Brooke-Taylor was "gentle, kind, funny, wise, warm, but piercingly witty when he chose to be".
Mitchell, who appeared alongside Brooke-Taylor on BBC Radio 4's panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, described him as "a wonderful comedian and a really lovely man".
The surviving members of The Goodies mourned their co-star. Bill Oddie remembered him as "a true visual comic and a great friend", while Graeme Garden said he was "terribly saddened by the loss of a dear colleague and close friend of over 50 years".
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