CARLA NOT SO COY ABOUT HER LOVER

COMEDY producer Sydney Lotterby may now deny he was the other man in Bread writer Carla Lane’s life, but the late sitcom queen personally confirmed that he was her secret lover.

Lane, who died aged 87 last week, wrote in her 2006 autobiography about a 30-year secret affair with a TV producer known only as ‘Him’.

While Lotterby remained unnamed in the memoir, facts, dates and figures clearly identified ‘Him’.

He produced and directed many of Lane’s best-known series, including, poignantly, Butterflies, in which Wendy Craig memorably played Ria, forever teetering on the brink of abandoning her husband for admirer Leonard.

Carla confirmed Lotterby’s name to an interviewer ten years ago. ‘It was a very important relationship in my life and one I had hoped was going to remain secret,’ she said.

‘I told him that I was going to write about us and he said go ahead.’