
Although I mentioned him in [93] a list of TV memories, I have to mention the sad death of Brian Rix – Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, described by Wikipedia as an English actor and campaigner.
Over many years, he presented more than ninety one-night-only television farces on the BBC, which were hugely popular, with viewing figures regularly topping 15 million. In the early 1960s he was the highest paid actor to appear on BBC TV. Only a few of these have survived in the BBC archive.
Farce in those days may have included some innuendo and double entendres but by modern standards it was good, clean fun.
With his wife Elspet he became involved in the world of learning disability after their first daughter, Shelley, was born with Down syndrome, in those days referred to as mongolism. There was no welfare support for such children and certainly no education. The only offering the state made was a place in a run-down so-called hospital where “patients” were left to their own devices for hours on end.