Tributes were paid to British actor and comedian John Bird on Wednesday after he died at the age of 86, with a former colleague marking the contribution of one of the country’s funniest men to political and social life.
The star of Bremner, Bird and Fortune started off at the Cambridge Footlights sketch troupe, before making a career in Now Something Else, Rory Bremner, Who Else? and The Rory Bremner Show.
“John Bird was, to the end, never pleased with himself, always feeling he should have done better, been less lazy, had a late period like Brahms, ‘where everything was spare and abstract’.
“The reality was that he and his friend and collaborator John Fortune, together with Peter Cook, were pillars of the anti-establishment.”
Bird died on December 24 at Pendean care home in southern England and a family funeral is to be followed by a celebration of his life in the new year.
Bremner said it was “striking” Bird died “nine years, almost to the day” after Fortune, who died aged 74 on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
Bird and Fortune became household names with their “Long Johns” comedy skits, in which the double act played bumbling politicians, military figures and businessmen.
