Farewell Foggy: Star of Summer Wine and Porridge dies in his sleep at the age of 80

Brian Wilde, a much-loved star in two of television's favourite sitcoms, has died at the age of 80.

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After suffering a fall seven weeks ago, he spent his final days in a nursing home where he died in his sleep of natural causes. He leaves a widow, Eva, a son and daughter.

Wilde began his career in 1966 with roles in the TV series Room At The Bottom and the films The Jokers and Carry On Doctor.

But his big break came in 1973, when he starred in an episode of Seven of One, a series of individual stories starring Ronnie Barker.

Wilde played Mr Barrowclough, a bumbling warder escorting Norman Stanley Fletcher across the moors to his prison cell. The episode proved so popular that it was developed into a series. Porridge ran from 1974 to 1977.

Wilde joined Last Of The Summer Wine – now the world's longest running sitcom – for its third series in 1976.

He joined Bill Owen (Compo) and Peter Sallis (Clegg) for nine years before leaving in 1985. He returned in 1990 and remained for another seven years, appearing in a total of 116 episodes.

James Gilbert, former BBC head of comedy and a director of Summer Wine, believed the secret of its success lay in its innocence.

He said: "Like PG Wodehouse, it is set in the land of eternal summer. If I was ever in doubt about how to direct a scene, I would think how they would react if they were children."

Wilde agreed, describing his character as pompous but "basically very silly".

Away from the screen, the Lancashire-born actor, who lived in Ware, Hertfordshire, was an intensely private man.

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Peter Sallis, who met him at RADA when they were teenagers, said yesterday: "If you saw him in Porridge or Last of the Summer Wine then you knew as much about him as I did. He was a private person, not in a stuffy way, but he didn't mix socially.

"If you saw him in character as Foggy you get a pretty good idea of what Brian was like. His work was exemplary."

Summer Wine creator Roy Clarke said: "He was one of my favourite actors. He was absolutely impeccable with every line. You could give him all sorts of convoluted speech and he never made a fluff. A wonderful actor and a very nice man."

And producer Alan JW Bell added: "He was perhaps the best of the Summer Wine 'third men' – the most loved of all the characters.

"He was a fine actor to work with, very professional. He was an old school actor – you turned up, knew your lines and played them the very best you could."He had an enormous warmth to the public when he was off the set."

Wilde's agent Nick Young said: "He will be sadly missed by family and colleagues alike. He brought a great deal of laughter into everyone's lives."