Actor Rodney Bewes has died. He was 79.

His agent has issued a statement and paid tribute to him, saying: "It is with great sadness that we confirm that our dear client, the much loved actor Rodney Bewes, passed away this morning. Rodney was a true one off. We will miss his charm and ready wit."

Bewes was best known for co-starring with James Bolam in classic BBC sitcoms The Likely Lads and its sequel, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Both series were written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and charted the friendship and varying degrees of social mobility of two working class Newcastle friends, Bob Ferris and Terry Collier. Bewes played reluctant social climber Bob and James Bolam played Terry.

His film appearances ranged from Billy Liar to Jabberwocky to the film version of The Likely Lads.

Bewes also created, co-wrote and starred in the less well known Dear Mother... ...Love Albert (pictured), and in later years was a regular performer onstage in his live versions of Three Men In A Boat and Diary of a Nobody. He was a regular visitor to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. One year comedian Richard Herring met him there and Bewes claimed that Jimi Hendrix had played on the theme tune to the Likely Lads.

According to Herring, writing in his Metro column: "He said that they’d been recording the theme tune at a studio with Mike Hugg (the drummer with Manfred Mann who also wrote a few TV theme tunes), when Jimi knocked on the door. He’d been recording in the room next door and had liked what he’d heard and asked to join in. Bewes said that he went home that night and told his wife he’d been jamming with Jimi Hendrix and she said: ‘Oh Rodney, why do you keep making this rubbish up?’ Bewes looked at me with his wide and innocent eyes saying: ‘But this time it was true.’"

However, Herring calculated that the dates didn't match up, but Mike Hugg did write the theme tune to Dear Mother... ...Love Albert, so maybe there is some truth in it, he wondered...