Ned Sherrin, the writer, director, broadcaster and impresario, has died at his home at the age of 76. He had been suffering from throat cancer.
Sherrin is probably best known for devising That Was The Week That Was, the satirical television show which broke new ground for the genre and made a star of David Frost, and for presenting BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends for two decades.
Sherrin had talents that he could turn to any genre. His stage musicals include Sing A Rude Song, Nicholas Nickleby And Me, and The Mitford Girls. He also helped to create the revue show Side By Side By Sondheim, receiving a Tony Award nomination for his role as the narrator when it was performed on Broadway. Sherrin's conception of The Ratepayers' Iolanthe saw him win the 1984 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Musicals.
Sherrin's more recent theatre work included directorial duties on the touring production of Our Song, which played at Richmond in 2003, and on Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell – a play he had originally directed Peter O'Toole in – when it was revived at the Garrick in 2006 with Tom Conti in the lead role.
Born in Low Ham in 1931, Sherrin was the son of a farmer. After reading law at Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1955, but swiftly left to pursue a career in broadcasting following a chance meeting with a floor manager who had seen him perform a revue at Oxford. He was awarded the CBE in 1997.
MA