Showbusiness ran through his veins

THIS is terrible, terrible news. I knew he wasn’t well but it’s shocking to hear, having worked with him for so many years.

Keith was really a showbiz trouper in the old-fashioned sense.

It was an enormous pleasure working with him because he lifted everybody. He had been a child actor too – showbusiness ran through him like a stick of rock.

One of the funniest moments for me was when Keith was on morning telly, he knocked on someone’s door and told them: “You’ve won £10,000, how do you feel?” This bloke jumped up and down with excitement, then said, “It won’t affect my disability payments, will it?”

Keith loved being on stage. I was surprised to hear he wasn’t doing panto this year and in retrospect, it was a bit telling. He loved the roar of the crowd. Keith was someone you could never knock over. Like anyone, he probably had moments when he wasn’t feeling so good but it was the old showbiz thing of when the spotlight is on, he was there.

If you said to him at any moment, “The spotlight is on you”, he’d go “OK” and away he’d go – but he obviously went home and crashed.

He once asked me what I did after a show. I said, “I play tennis, and he said, “I go home knackered and I sleep.”

That was Keith – he’d give the audience 100 per cent even if it meant wearing himself out.