Actor, writer and musician Gordon Clyde was known to radio listeners for his satircal and topical piano and song spots on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week and Woman’s Hour. He also had his own weekly show on the BBC World Service.

Television viewers knew him best as the interviewer on the long running Dick Emery Show and throughout the 1960s he was one of Play School’s most popular childrens presenters.

Born in St Andrew’s, Scotland he began his career as a child actor in local repertory before studing music and English at Cambridge. He appeared in university dramatics including Jame Ferman’s Zuleika in which he was singled out for his “first-class all round performance” by the then varsity criric Michael Winner.

After National Service he joined the BBC briefly as an announcer and then went on to play roles in several West End musicals such as The Lord Chamberlain Regrets, The Maid of the Mountains, The Four Muskateers and Hello Dolly. He also starred in his own show, Clyde-O-Scope.

He later became involved with corporate presentations and his other television appearances included The Morecambe and Wise Show, No Hiding Place, and Are You Being Served?

During his career he wrote for many comedians such as Ronnie Corbett, Phil Silvers, Harry Secombe and Joan Turner. He also co-wrote, with Terence Frisby, the musical Kisses on a Postcard.

In recent years he had been suffering from a serious kidney condition. He married Anne Stevenson in 1961 and she died in 1990. They had one son.

Gordon Clyde, actor, writer and musician, was born on May 22, 1933. He died on January 26, 2008, aged 75