It’s not often that I’d write a piece like this but I would like to comment on the sad passing away of an acting and comedy legend. Geoffrey Hughes has sadly passed away at the age of 68 following a long battle with cancer.
I was firstly most familiar with Geoffrey Hughes as the hilarious slob Onslow in Roy Clarke’s fantastic sitcom ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. Famous for his high-brow reading matter, tolerance of his amorous wife and his fondness for lager, or “breakfast” as he called it, Geoffrey lived the character and became a highlight of the show.
But it wasn’t just this portrayal that he brought to life. I remember watching repeats of Coronation Street on Granada Plus – remember that channel? – and he was in these in the early days as bin man Eddie Yates.
And though I also saw him in a handful of episodes of the Royle Family – most memorably stripping wallpaper to Lou Bega’s ‘Mambo No. 5’, it would be his stint in popular ITV 60s police drama ‘Heartbeat’ that would be my favourite character. Inspired by the Greengrass character that proceeded him, Hughes’ character in the light drama was always a weekly highlight and though his time was cut short due to the start of his illness, he left in a well constructed plotline where he faked his own death to escape the taxman, but did return later in a brief cameo that saw him come back from Spain, where his character now ran a bar. But it was his initial departure that will be remembered as he was seen by other character David as a ghost, but as Bernie noted later, a ghost that came back to get a passport. Geoffrey Hughes will be sadly missed by fans of Corrie, Keeping up Appearances, Heartbeat and the many other shows he appeared in, most recently in Skins. He was an excellent comedy character actor and brought every role he appeared to life.
RIP Geoffrey Hughes (1944 – 2012)
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