Actor Ray Brooks, voice of Mr Benn, dies aged 86

The list of TV shows in which Brooks appeared in the 1960s and 1970s reads like a run-down of the British small screen's biggest hits of the era.

They included roles in Danger Man, Dixon of Dock Green, Emergency-Ward 10, The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Z Cars.

He also had a number of film successes, including in the 1965 film The Knack... and How to Get It, which won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

He played Georgio, the waiter in the crumbling hotel, in Carry On Abroad in 1972, and also appeared in the 1966 Dr Who movie Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Brooks also enjoyed appearances in the theatre, including Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends alongside Richard Briers, Peter Bowles and Phyllida Law. He also starred opposite Felicity Kendal in Tom Stoppard's On The Razzle.

Nonetheless, his sons said Brooks "shunned the limelight" in real life.

They said: "His three true loves were family [he also had a daughter Emma, who died in 2003], Fulham Football Club, and spending time in Brighton, where he was born.

He was among the celebrity Fulham fans who fought against the club's proposed merger with QPR in the 1980s - and son Will recalled that Brooks even wore a "Save Fulham" badge during an interview on Wogan at the time.

The family revealed that he had spent the last few years living with dementia but died peacefully on Saturday with his family at his bedside.