'Gentle' comic Derek Nimmo dies at 68 after fall at home | UK news

'Gentle' comic Derek Nimmo dies at 68 after fall at home

Comedy actor Derek Nimmo died yesterday, aged 68. He had been in hospital since suffering a fall at his west London home before Christmas.

His agent, Barry Burnett, said Mr Nimmo was surrounded by his family when he died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Mr Nimmo starred in several TV comedies, frequently as a cleric, such as O Brother, O Father, Hell's Bells, and All Gas and Gaiters. He was a regular on the Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute for 30 years. In 1971 he was voted Variety Club showbusiness personality of the year.

The fall at his Kensington home last December had left Mr Nimmo critically ill.

His marriage to Pat had lasted 43 years. He met her in his native Liverpool when she sold him tickets for a local amateur production she was appearing in. The meeting persuaded him to become an actor. 'She was frightfully pretty so I joined the company,' he said. They had three children, Tim, Amanda and Piers.

In an interview last year he admitted his brand of gentle humour was out of fashion. 'Men Behaving Badly is at the opposite end of the scale to the rather naive bumbling characters I used to play,' he said.

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