Farewell to the character players

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BEEN AND GONE By Nick Serpell BBC Obituary Unit Hugh Lloyd found fame in Hancock's Half Hour

Our regular column covering the passing of significant - but lesser-reported - people of the past month.

After years working in theatre, actor Hugh Lloyd made his first TV appearance in 1957, becoming a regular on Hancock's Half Hour. He went on to co-star with Terry Scott in Hugh and I and appeared alongside Peggy Mount in Lollipop Loves Mr Mole. He was much in demand as a character actor with roles in a number of stage and TV plays. He also appeared in films as diverse as Mary Queen of Scots and Quadrophenia.

Elizabeth Spriggs was another character actor whose face appeared in a wide variety of stage and TV productions. She held an ambition to act from childhood and, after cutting her teeth in rep, achieved her dream by joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s. She became well known to TV viewers as Nan, in Shine On Harvey Moon, and was a regular in costume dramas, including the BBC productions of Middlemarch and Our Mutual Friend. She made a much lauded appearance as Mrs Jennings in Emma Thompson's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility in 1995.Elizabeth Spriggs was a renowned character actor

If Browne's Gazette had not run out at the start of the 1985 Champion Hurdle, Monica Dickinson could have been the first woman ever to achieve the trainer's championship. She saddled 149 National Hunt winners in her career as well as contributing to the success of her husband Tony and son, Michael, both top trainers in their own right. Among her successes were Badsworth Boy, who became the first horse to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times, and, in 1986, Wayward Lad, who gave the Dickinson dynasty their sixth King George VI Chase victory in seven attempts.

It's not often a poem reaches the Top 10 but, in 1971, Les Crane's recording of Desiderata did just that. A pioneer radio and TV talk show host, he became famous for his confrontational technique and was not averse to hanging up on callers who bored him. Desiderata, which begins "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence", was seen as inspirational, at a time when the hippie dream had died. However, years later, Crane said he could not listen to it without gagging.

Les Crane's own record later made him gag

During his 40 year career at Decca records, Hugh Mendl had a hand in the careers of some of the most famous names in music. He produced Winifred Attwell and Lonnie Donegan in the 1950s and eagerly embraced the pop revolution of the 1960s. He was executive producer on The Moody Blues' ground breaking album, Days Of Future Passed, in 1967, and was instrumental in signing David Bowie, John Mayall and Genesis to the Decca label.

Another great talent spotter was producer Charles Joffe, who launched the film career of Woody Allen He discovered the comedian writing scripts for a living and got Allen a part in the 1965 film, What's New Pussycat? He went on to produce nearly all of Allen's subsequent films including the Oscar winning Annie Hall. Joffe, together with his partner, Jack Rollins, nurtured a wide range of comic talent including Lennie Bruce, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.

Among others who died in July were <a class="inlineText" href="/1/hi/entertainment/7402172.stm">Charles Wheeler</a>, eminent BBC foreign correspondent, Donald Stokes, former boss of British Leyland, Russell Johnson, Liberal Democrat peer and Europe enthusiast and Bryan Cowgill, the BBC manager who launched Grandstand in 1958.