Credits range from Spike Milligan to the Two Ronnies

Comedy writer Neil Shand, who supplied gags for the likes of Kenny Everett, Spike Milligan, Bob Monkhouse and Mike Yarwood, has died at the age of 84.

He became a comedy writer in the mid-1960s, getting his break writing gags for David Frost. He was previously a journalist on the Daily Mail and Daily Express.

Shand went on to work on Milligan’s series Q9 and There's a Lot of It About, and also worked with the two Ronnies, Kelly Monteith, and Jasper Carrott.

Speaking to the BBC, comedy historian Louis Barfe described Shand as the writer of ‘great, effervescent lines’.

And Gyles Brandreth tweeted that he was a ‘great joke merchant & script editor, he was so nice to me when I was 20.’

Published: 16 Apr 2018