The acting world mourned yesterday the news that one of its most loved and much respected actors, Richard Briers, died on Sunday at the age of 79.

He was known to millions of television viewers for programmes such as the 1970s smash hit The Good Life, Ever Decreasing Circles and Monarch of the Glen and for his incredible roles in films that he was cast in by his friend Sir Kenneth Branagh such as Hamlet, Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993) and  the superb 1994 version of Frankenstein in which he starred with Robert De Niro as well as Sir Kenneth Branagh.  Richard Briers had been battling a lung condition for many years, however true to the consummate professional he was he had carried on working up to the point he died.