Comic actor and satirist John Bird has died at the age of 86.
He was known for his comic partnership with John Fortune, who died nine years ago, and the duo also linked up with impressionist Rory Bremner for the award-winning Bremner, Bird and Fortune, a political satire which ran on Channel 4 between 1999 and 2010.
A family statement confirmed that he died peacefully in a West Sussex care home on Christmas Eve.
Paying tribute, Bremner wrote: "It's an irony that one of our greatest satirists, so brilliant at portraying ministers, civil servants or high-ranking officials who exuded self-satisfaction, was himself so modest and self-effacing.
"John Bird was, to the end, never pleased with himself, always feeling he should have done better, been less lazy, had a late period like Brahms, 'where everything was spare and abstract'.
"The reality was that he and his friend and collaborator John Fortune, together with Peter Cook, were pillars of the anti-establishment."
Bird is survived by wife Libby and two stepsons.
Follow us on Twitter @SMEntsFeed and like us on Facebook for the latest entertainment news alerts.
