Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fiercely intelligent.. kind and very funny
TV’S Paul Ritter dies of brain tumour at 54
PAUL Ritter, best known for hilariously overheating as dad Martin in Friday Night Dinner, has died aged just 54.
The “kind and funny” actor, who passed away on Monday evening with his wife Polly and sons Frank and Noah by his side, had been suffering with a brain tumour.
A statement from his agent said: “He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly.”
Robert Popper, the programme’s creator who let his character loose with an array of memorable catchphrases including “lovely bit of squirrel” and the exasperated “sh** on it”, added a heartfelt tribute.
He said: “Paul was a lovely, wonderful human being. Kind, funny, super caring and the greatest actor I ever worked with. He was so quiet and focused before he went on, and then as soon as he went on, all that energy popped out of him. It was amazing.”
Fellow actor Stephen
Mangan, Paul’s friend since they were students, said: “So much talent and it shone from him even as a teenager. I was so lucky to know him. RIP.”
A highly accomplished stage actor, Ritter was nominated for an Olivier and Tony award for his roles in Coram Boy and
The Norman Conquests.
He made his TV debut on
The Bill in 1992 before big screen appearances in James Bond flick
Quantum of Solace and as Eldred Worple in Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. But it was his performance as the cantankerous Martin Goodman in the Channel 4 show which made the Kent-born star a household name.
His comedy timing was put to good use in We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story in which he played the show’s co-creator Jimmy Perry and during a three-year stint as Benjamin Stevens on Cold Feet. Ritter also showed a much darker side with his fearsome display as engineer Anatoly Dyatlov in Chernobyl.
Paul is due to appear in the Friday Night Dinner 10th anniversary retrospective, which will air on Channel 4 later this year.