The actor who played Teletubbies patriarch Tinky Winky in the roaringly popular BBC children’s series, has died just four days after his 52nd birthday.
Father-of-three Simon Shelton Barnes, who lived in the Bedfordshire Georgian market town of Ampthill trained as a ballet dancer and choreographer.
The British pre-school show won multiple BAFTA awards, a single based on its theme song reached number one in 1997 and sold over 1 million copies.
The original release ran from 1997 to 2001 but 60 more episodes were ordered in 2014.
Barnes was the brother-in-law of Poldark actor Robbert Daws and uncle of Inbetweeners actress Emily Atack.
Atack paid tribute to her uncle on Instagram.
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His Tinky Winky character once caused controversy in the States where evangelical TV minister Jerry Falwell accused him of being gay.
But Simon said: “People always ask me if Tinky Winky is gay. But the character is supposed to be a three-year-old so the question is really quite silly.”
Barnes once said that being in the Teletubbies was “a bit like the Beatles or Take That of television”.
He added: “We used to receive a lot of fan mail from children and parents.”
Relatives have asked mourners to “wear bright colours” at his funeral at Bedford Crematorium on February 7.
