Stars attend funeral of Sherrin

Ned Sherrin's Gladstone bag had pride of place on his coffin

Stars of radio, theatre and television have attended the funeral of broadcaster and writer Ned Sherrin.

Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Sir David Frost were among the mourners bidding farewell to Sherrin, who died last week from throat cancer aged 76.

The service took place at Chelsea Old Church, central London, where Sherrin was a regular worshipper.

Amid the flowers adorning his coffin was the battered Gladstone leather bag which Sherrin carried everywhere.

'Boundless brio'

The coffin was carried out of the church to the theme tunes of his favourite BBC Radio 4 soap The Archers and That Was The Week That Was, the ground-breaking satirical BBC TV show he devised.

He also presented BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends for 20 years.

At the service, Dame Judi read from Shakespeare and Sherrin's fellow broadcaster Victoria Mather paid an affectionate tribute.

Ned Sherrin's broadcasting career spanned six decades

She described Sherrin as a man who had "enriched so many restaurants", and told how he feasted on fish pie, oysters and vodka martinis in his final days.

"I'm so happy that Ned died at home in his own bed as an English gentleman should," she said.

His co-writer Alistair Beaton recalled Sherrin's "boundless brio" and read out one of the hundreds of messages received by the BBC following news of his death.

The listener wrote: "He was what the BBC is meant to be. He added to British culture. Loving Ned Sherrin is part of being British."

Sherrin's ashes will be interred - in his Gladstone bag - at the family plot in Kingweston, Somerset.