Ray Brooks, the British actor who starred in EastEnders, Ken Loach’s drama Cathy Come Home and narrated the 1970s children’s TV show Mr Benn, has died at the age of 86.
Brooks died peacefully on Saturday with his loved ones at his bedside after a short illness, according to a statement shared by his family with the BBC.
The statement also revealed that Brooks had spent the last few years living with dementia.
Brooks’ sons, Will and Tom, 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.”
The cartoon Mr Benn, narrated by Brooks, follows the character who enters a magical costume shop and travels to new places based on the costumes he wears.
Only 13 episodes were released but the cartoon became well known with generations of children because episodes were repeated twice a year for more than 21 years.
“I was asked to do other cartoons because of Mr Benn – including Rupert the Bear, which was the worst thing I’ve ever done. I used to have a couple of pints before recording it, to numb my brain for his terrible rhymes,” Brooks told the Guardian in 2017, adding: “Grandmas come up to me and say their grandchildren are fed up with today’s cartoons, but they love the simplicity of Mr Benn, the fact that he’s very moral, always sorting out people’s problems – including dragons.”
Brooks went on to appear in a host of different primetime television shows including ITV’s Coronation Street, in which he played Norman Phillips, and EastEnders, where he played Joe Macer, who memorably killed his wife, the long-running character Pauline Fowler.
Brooks also starred in the BBC comedy drama Big Deal, which followed gambler Robbie Box as he tried to make a living by betting while also trying to maintain his relationship with Jan, played by Sharon Duce.
Brooks earned a number of film credits, including a role in The Knack … And How To Get It, which won the 1965 Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival.
A year later he starred in Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home, a BBC drama filmed like a documentary, which explored the impact of Britain’s housing shortage in the late 1960s. In 2000, a British Film Institute poll of 100 industry figures rated it as the second-best British television programme ever made, after Fawlty Towers.
Press Association contributed to this report.
