Leslie Phillips

As second in the long-running series of naughty comedies (they did it 28 times!), this was the first to gather all those seaside-postcard characters. Down at Haven hospital the chaps in stripey pyjamas (Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Leslie Phillips) are revolting - against fearsome matron Hattie Jacques. A great stream of silly jokes and, like nurse Shirley Eaton, irresistible.

Leslie Phillips returns home after suffering a stroke

Beloved veteran actor Leslie Phillips has returned home from hospital, after having made a remarkable recovery following a stroke.

The 90-year-old collapsed on a crowded bus while on a shopping trip on London's Oxford Street nine weeks ago, causing nationwide concern over his health.

However, the British icon has now left hospital and is now back at home with his wife Zara after successfully regaining his powers of speech.

Leslie Phillips asks Queen for knighthood

Royalist Leslie Phillips has underlined his commitment to carry on living and survive a stroke by begging the Queen to give him a knighthood.

Carry On star Leslie Phillips recovering after stroke

Fans have called the central London hospital where Leslie Phillips, 90, is recovering to wish him well.

Leslie Phillips, 89, ties the knot with third wife

Giving a joyful thumbs up outside the register office yesterday, this is actor Leslie Phillips after he married for the third time - at the age of 89.

Leslie Phillips to get married for the third time at 89

I say! Suave movie lothario Leslie Phillips is to hear wedding bells tomorrow for the third time - at the age of 89.

It's an established fact that no actor has ever imbued the greeting "Hello" with as much honeyed smarm as Leslie Phillips. Along with "Ding dong!" it became his calling card, that voice a byword for a string of comedy cads. The irony is that his upper-class tones were adopted: Phillips came from a working-class background, but shrugged off his cockney accent as a child actor before coming to fame in the Carry On and Doctor films. Here Phillips, now 89, reflects on a long and varied career.

A welcome repeat of the enjoyable documentary, shown on BBC Four last year, exploring why sexual frustration still underpins British comedy. Leslie Phillips (star of the risqué Casanova '73) and Lesley Joseph (the insatiable Dorien Green from Birds of a Feather) are among the talking heads waxing lyrical on why Mildred didn't get it from George, why Terry didn't get it from June, and why the charmless Mr Rigsby spent his life wooing Miss Jones.

Narrated by former pin-up Madeline Smith (Phillips's fellow Casanova actress), the programme also examines the impact of the sexual revolution on British and, the more daring, American sitcoms. It suggests that the liberation of The Liver Birds was brought about by the abortion law reform and the introduction of the contraceptive pill, and that the shedding of inhibitions over the decades that followed resulted in the likes of the taboo-busting Gimme Gimme Gimme. But it seems that there's a lot of laughs to be had from being unlucky in love, and producers are sticking with the formula: the leads of The Young Ones, Men Behaving Badly, Ab Fab and the more recent The Inbetweeners got no more sex than their ancestors.

The film in which Leslie Phillips first uttered his immortal catchphrase: "I say, Ding Dong!" Hattie Jacques is the no-nonsense matron presiding over accident-prone trainee nurse Joan Simms, who decides to get even with an overbearing Colonel by sticking a daffodil up his you know where.

Police investigate death of Leslie Phillips's ex-wife

Leslie Phillips is today in mourning following the death of his beloved wife of 28 years.