The Times obituary

Brian Wilde, the veteran comic actor, has died at the age of 80.

Wilde worked on screen and television for more than half a century, but will be best remembered for two roles — as Foggy in the long-running BBC series Last of the Summer Wine and the ineffectual prison officer Mr Barraclough in Porridge.

The actor’s son, Andrew Wilde, said that his father died in his sleep of natural causes last night in a nursing home, where he had been staying for a short while. He had suffered a fall about seven weeks ago and did not recover.

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 over the course of his career.”

Known for his hangdog, exasperated expression, Wilde's first big role was a refuse depot manager in the ITV sitcom The Dustbinmen in 1970. In 1973 he played a prison officer escorting Ronnie Barker's character Fletcher to prison in the series Seven of One, and Porridge was born.

In 1976 he took over from Michael Bates as the third schoolboy-turned pensioner in Last of the Summer Wine, playing Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst, a retired soldier who planned the groups' ill-fated expeditions with military precision — and disastrous results. He left the series in 1985 but returned in 1990 and stayed with the show — the world's longest-running sitcom, beginning in 1973 — for a further seven years.

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