Veteran comedy actor John Junkin has died at the age of 76 following a battle with lung cancer.

His credits included Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, The Goodies and Eric Sykes’s The Plank had been suffering from lung cancer.

He died at 1.30am at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, his friend Dave Lee Travis said. He also had emphysema and asthma.

The Ealing-born comedian also wrote for a many other comedians, including Morecambe and Wise, Ronnie Barker, Marty Feldman and Mike Yarwood. He was writing up to 2004, when he worked on The Impressionable Jon Culshaw.

Five years ago he made a screen comeback in EastEnders, playing Ernie, a mysterious stranger who suddenly appeared in the Queen Vic.