A Son of the Rock

I was very sad to hear of the death of Tim Brooke-Taylor, especially so since it seems he succumbed to Covid-19.

I suppose most people will remember him from The Goodies (goody, goody, yum-yum.) However, Taylor’s “character” in that series always seemed to me to be composed too much of the upper-class English twit, which did him an injustice.

I first encountered him, though in the radio show I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again, (episodes of which are available on the iPlayer) in which he played many parts but most notably for me, Lady Constance de Coverlet, a woman of bountiful proportions the source of many jokes, and perenially man-mad.

One particular memory I have of the character came in the serial “Professor Prune and The Electric Time Trousers” where in one episode the show’s perenially popular dog Spot was carried away in the time trousers along with the Professor. “Come back, Professor,” said Lady Constance. “Come back, Spot.”

“Come back Spot?” came the query, as if mystified by her affection for a dog.

Lady Constance – “I chase anything in trousers.”

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor: 17/7/1940 – 12/4/2020. So it goes.