I’monlyever remembered foronething ..atleastIam remembered forsomething

success eventually led to a place at RADA – although he never fitted in.

He did not like the “posh kids” and had to work nights washing up in a hotel kitchens to pay for lessons.

So tired from work, he fell asleep in lessons and was expelled. His principal wrote his “talents lay in other directions”.

Still, opportunity came knocking. He appeared in Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars, and in 1963 won a role in best pal Tom Courtenay’s Billy Liar. In 1964, he landed The Likely Lads and from then until 1976, he said he remembered the series as “one big party”. He was even Basil Brush’s co-star Mr Rodney in 1968.

He admitted being a ladies’ man in those days, saying: “Young, posh drama students from Chelsea used to say, ‘You’re so young to have done all you’ve done’. I was something different.”

Rodney had a brief marriage to Nina Tebbit, saying: “I was too busy being a household name to see much of her.” His second wife, Daphne, was the love of his life. They wed in 1973 and were together until her death in 2015.

They had daughter Daisy in 1973, then triplets Tom, Billy and Joe in 1976.

Meanwhile, the Likely Lads dominated his career – and was to dominate the rest of his life. But Rodney, unlike co-star James, always said he never minded the attention. “People still stop me to discuss The Likely Lads,” he said. “Some even ask me whether I mind talking about it after all these years. If I minded I’d deserve a swift kick because it was a great show and provided my 15 minutes of fame.”

But Rodney’s friendship with James fell apart after a remark from Rodney he always regretted. In a 1976 interview he told what he thought was a harmless anecdote about James and his wife having a baby. He realised fiercely private James, now 82, would not be happy and rang to apologise. But he put the phone down and, Rodney said, never spoke to him again – even when Daphne died. In one of his last chats, he said: “I’d love to be friends with him but he doesn’t want to be. I can’t be like Jimmy, I can’t be that angry.”

By the 80s his TV career was virtually over. He admitted seeing a counsellor for low self-esteem.

The 90s were mostly spent doing one-man versions of Three Men in a Boat and Diary of a Nobody.

But the star, who lived in Henley-onThames, did not care about success. “I have such a lovely life,” he once said. “I keep busy. I have Daf, my four kids, my two houses and my boats. Success doesn’t matter too much when you’re as happy as I am.”