Posted in: TV | Tagged: friday night dinner, paul ritter

Friday Night Dinner Star, Paul Ritter, Dies At Age 54

Paul Ritter, star of TV sitcom Friday Night Dinner, died last night of a brain tumour, aged 54. He was best known for playing Martin in Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner alongside Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Mark Heap and Tom Rosenthal.

Paul Ritter had a wide acting career, including a leading role as Randolph Miller in police comedy-drama No Offence, appearing in Quantum Of Solace, playing Eldred Worple in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, and prominent roles in The Game, Cold Feet, Chernobyl, The Trial Of Christine Keeler and Neil Gaiman's Likely Stories. He was also nominated  for an Olivier award in 2006 for playing Otis Gardiner in the original Royal National Theatre production of Helen Edmundson's Coram Boy, and for a Tony award for his 2009 starring role in the Norman Conquests. In 2012, he appeared as the protagonist's father in the stage version of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the National Theatre and in 2013 as John Major in the premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience

Paul Ritter's agent released the statement "It is with great sadness we can confirm that Paul Ritter passed away last night. He died peacefully at home with his wife Polly and sons Frank and Noah by his side. He was 54 and had been suffering from a brain tumour. Paul was an exceptionally talented actor playing an enormous variety of roles on stage and screen with extraordinary skill. He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly."

Friday Night Dinner gained a new worldwide audience recently on Netflix, while Paul Ritter will appear in the Friday Night Dinner 10th-anniversary retrospective, airing on Channel 4 later this year. But for now, only one phrase of his will do, and one made famous the world over. "Shit on it."

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