Mirror legend Bill Tidy dies aged 89
CARTOONIST Bill Tidy, who penned the Mirror’s comic strip The Fosdyke Saga for 14 years, died yesterday, aged 89.
The legendary artist passed away with his grown-up children Sylvia and Rob, who was his full-time carer, at his side. His health had declined after two major strokes.
Sylvia, who runs a PR agency, said:
“Today is one of the hardest days of my life. Dad was a talented and very funny man, as well as the UK’s bestloved cartoonist.”
Bill, raised in
Liverpool, sold his first cartoon to a Japanese newspaper in 1955
– the year he left the Army. In 1975, he was the subject of This Is Your Life.
And in 2000 he was honoured with an MBE for services to journalism.
Bill was a regular guest in dictionary corner on Channel 4’s Countdown, as well as on TV’s Watercolour Challenge,
Through the Keyhole, Blankety Blank and Countryfile. He was known for drawing his cartoons quickly on TV.
Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes said: “Bill was very special man, he will never die. I adored him – we all did.”
Actor Robert Powell said: “I knew Bill for almost 50 years. He was a great friend and we spent many happy hours together. ”
Bill, of Swannington , Leics, whose wife Rosa died in November 2019, wrote 20 books, illustrated 70 and drew cartoon strip The Cloggies, in Private Eye, from 1967 to 1981.
Composer Tim Rice said: “Bill will be missed not only for his great talent but for his warmth, wit and wisdom.” Sylvia added: “We are all deeply saddened but his legacy and cartoons will continue to live on.”
Bill’s Fosdyke Saga strip ran in the Mirror from 1971 until 1985.