Actor Clive Swift has died aged 82.
The star was best known for playing Hyacinth Bucket’s long-suffering husband Richard in the classic sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.
He played the role opposite Dame Patricia Routledge from 1990 to 1995, and appeared in 42 episodes of the show.
A representative for the actor confirmed to Standard Online: "After a short illness Clive died peacefully at home this morning surrounded by his family."
Born in Liverpool in 1936, he read English literature at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he participated in student theatre along with the likes of Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen and the novelist Margaret Drabble, who he married in 1960.
Before finding success on the small screen, he was a respected theatre star as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and earned plaudits for his turns in Cymbeline, All's Well That Ends Well and the history plays.
His other credits included parts in adaptations of The Barcester Chronicles and The Pickwick Papers, the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special and the series Born and Bred, Peak Practice and The Old Guys. He took the role of Sir Ector, the adoptive father of King Arthur in the 1981 film Excalibur.
Swift was married to Drabble from 1960 to 1975, and was father to Rebecca (who died in April 2017), Adam, an academic at University College London, and Joe Swift, a TV gardener.
