Bernard Kay obituary

Bernard Kay, who has died aged 86, was a versatile and intelligent actor. He brought gravitas and often – despite his imposing frame – vulnerability to more than 100 roles in popular television drama during the course of a 60-year career.

Bernard was born in Bolton, Lancashire, to Billy, a reporter for the Yorkshire Post who spent his final years in an asylum and died when Kay was 12. His mother, Edith, also died when he was an infant, apparently having taken her own life. His care was shared between his grandparents and the strict regime at Chetham’s school, now Chetham’s school of music, Manchester, where, as he put it: “I had Christianity beaten into me.”