Leslie Phillips star of Carry On, Love on a Branch Line dies

The veteran actor, who died on Monday, spent eight decades in the spotlight and became well known for his suggestive catchphrases which included “Ding dong”, “Well, hello” and “I say!”.

Phillips died “peacefully in his sleep” on Monday, his agent Jonathan Lloyd confirmed to the PA news agency.

Although he became known for his plummy accent and exaggerated portrayals of the English upper class, Phillips was born in Tottenham, north London, speaking estuary English.

He attended the respected Italia Conti Stage School before serving as a lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry between 1942 and 1945, when he was invalided out.

The 1930s marked his first film appearances and in 1959 and 1960 he starred in three Carry On films, Carry On Nurse, Carry On Teacher and Carry On Constable, cementing his reputation for playing incompetent albeit smooth toffs.

Leslie Phillips (centre) with stars of the film Christian Slater and Neve Campbell, during a private screening of Churchill - The Hollywood Years, at the Soho Hotel in central London. (Image: PA)

It was during this time that he developed his well-known catchphrases, which he delivered with suggestive intonation.

He later hinted these were partly based on the work of fellow actor and comic Terry-Thomas.

He played the eccentric Lord Flamborough in the 1994 television series Love on a Branch Line.

The adaptation of the 1954 comic novel of the same name, tells the story of a refined civil moving to the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

The setting for the novel is loosely based on the area around the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, which ran between Haughley and Laxfield, and closed in 1952.

Carry On film stars Barbara Windsor and Leslie Phillips at a 40th Anniversary Gala reunion for the actors and makers of the series at Pinewood Studios. (Image: PA)

Phillips later moved into more dramatic roles, including a Bafta-nominated turn opposite Peter O’Toole in 2006’s Venus and also voiced the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films.

He suffered a stroke in 2014 while on a shopping trip on London’s Oxford Street but made a strong recovery and returned home following a hospital stay.

He was made an OBE in the 1998 Birthday Honours and CBE in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Carry On film stars Barbara Windsor and Leslie Phillips at a 40th Anniversary Gala reunion for the actors and makers of the series at Pinewood Studios. (Image: PA)