Frank Thornton

Ten comics who donned blackface

Keith Lemon creator Leigh Francis last week apologised for mimicking black celebrities including Michael Jackson and Craig David on Bo' Selecta! 'I've been talking to some people,' he said in a tearful statement in the wake of the intensifying Black Lives Matter campaign. 'I didn't realise how offensive it was back then.' But he's far from the only comedian to flirt with blackface, long after its racism became apparent.

Frank Thornton left nearly £1.6m in his will

Comedy actor Frank Thornton - best known as pompous Captain Peacock in classic sitcom Are You Being Served? - left nearly £1.6million in his will.

At its peak, an episode of Jeremy Lloyd's innuendo-driven department-store sitcom could glue 22 million bums on sofas. Yet series one, which went up against Corrie, slipped by unnoticed, only acquiring a fanbase when it was re-shown. Are You Being Served? finally went off air in 1985, so sauce-starved aficionados will gobble up this clip-and-comment treat first shown on New Year's Day 2010.

Cast, crew and writers gather to tell the back story (Lloyd got the idea from working at Simpsons of Piccadilly) and reel off anecdotes from the 13-year run. Among them is Frank Thornton, who played the punctilious Captain Peacock and died in March 2013, aged 92.

Obituary: Frank Thornton

Frank Thornton, who has died at the age of 92, was a character actor who spent more than 20 years in bit parts until achieving national fame as the pompous Captain Peacock in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?

Back for a 29th season, the world's longest-running sitcom (with every episode still written by the redoubtable Roy Clarke) survives all attempts to inhibit its quest for eternal life - even an insurance policy that bars 87-year-old stalwart Frank Thornton, who plays 'Truly' Truelove, from filming outdoor scenes.

Rumours abound that Russ Abbott (a spring chicken at 60) will be joining the cast but first Brian Conley pops up as Barry's (Mike Grady) fitness-mad neighbour who outshines him in all things physical. Yet when it comes to karate, it seems Barry has a way to level the playing field.