From Goons to Daleks to Sherlock...

Producer extraordinaire Beryl Vertue dies at 90

Beryl Vertue – who started her career as a secretary to Spike Milligan and Galton and Simpson and went on to produce comedies such as Men Behaving Badly and Coupling then dramas such as Sherlock and Dracula – has died at the age of 90.

She died peacefully yesterday surrounded by her loved ones, her family said, but gave no cause of death.

Her daughters Sue and Debbie said in a statement: ‘It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to share the sad news that mum/Beryl passed away peacefully last night. It wasn't Covid, it was just her nearly 91-year-old body saying enough is enough.

‘We were there so the passing was as good as one could hope for. Nothing wrong with her brain - even earlier this week she was grilling us both about work.

’It’s really impossible to believe that she has gone though, because I know we’re not alone in thinking that somehow she’d go on forever. She meant so much to so many.

‘She loved a glass of wine at lunchtime, she loved asking the common sense question, she was often the last person at a party, she didn’t suffer fools, she was fair, she was kind, she was fun, she was stubborn, in fact she was the total package and we will miss her beyond words.

"She was more than a mother to us - she was also a friend. To many in the industry she was more than a friend - she was often a mother.’

Others paying tribute today include Sherlock writer and star Mark Gatiss. The League Of Gentlemen star tweeted: ‘What a life. An extraordinary legacy. From Goons to Rag & Bone Men, Daleks to Consulting Detectives. She saw it all and did most of it. But foremost - a wonderful woman, a loyal colleague and an absolute scream. She was loved.’

A former school friend of comedy writer Alan Simpson, Vertue was invited to join what was to become Associated London Scripts, which he formed with his Steptoe and Son co-writer Ray Galton alongside Milligan, Eric Sykes, Johnny Speight and Terry Nation.

She came agent to them all by default, and famously negotiated for Nation to keep some rights to the Daleks he created for Doctor Who, as well as Tony Hancock and Frankie Howerd.

In 1967, she joined the Stigwood Organisation, which specialised in selling British television formats to America. These successes included Steptoe and Son, which became Sanford and Son in the US, and Till Death Us Do Part, which was turned into All in the Family.

Her other credits include producing Speight’s Til Death Do Us Part, the cinema version of The Who's rock opera Tommy, directed by Ken Russell.

In the 1980s, Vertue formed Hartswood Films, which produced comedies including Men Behaving Badly, Is It Legal?, and Coupling, written by her son-in-law Steven Moffat, who would go on to work on Doctor Who.

Dawn French tweeted that Vertue was ‘mighty & marvellous. A huge loss.’

Writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet – who interviewed her for Radio 3’s Free Thinking last year – added: ‘Goodbye Beryl. Warm, wily, razor-sharp. She lit up the room - so did her TV shows. Decades of them. I adored her. A pioneer right to the end.’

And TV producer Richard Marson said: ‘Here’s to the great Beryl Vertue, a pioneering power woman of British TV & film; proving that you can nail the top jobs with charm, authority, imagination & style without the sociopathy that often comes with the territory. Amazing career, inspiring woman.’

BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore said: 'Beryl Vertue enjoyed an extraordinary career as one of the most influential women in British broadcasting. A patron of British comedy and drama, she was a producer known for her great tenacity and charm - and she literally helped shape the TV industry as we know it today.

'She was always incredibly kind and generous with her advice. She was an inspiration and a true role model for all women in television. It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to a legend of the entertainment world.'

Vertue was made an OBE in 2000 and a CBE in 2016 for her work in the TV industry. In 2004, she received Bafta’s Alan Clarke Award for outstanding creative contribution to television and in 2012, she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Royal Television Society.

Here daughters Sue and Debbie talk about Vertue's legacy on the TV landscape in 2012, when she won a Broadcasting Press Guild award: