Barry Chuckle died after suffering from bone cancer, his eldest brother has claimed.
Jimmy Patton has told of how Barry, who died at the weekend aged 73, had fought a long battle with the disease, which had spread to his lungs prior to his death.
Speaking to The Sun, Jimmy said he was “devastated” as he opened up about Barry’s private diagnosis.
“Barry had bone cancer which had spread to his lungs,” he said. “He was ill for years, but kept it hidden.
“We knew about it, but kept it quiet, and all the family are really hurting right now.”
Jimmy also said he was “amazed” to see Barry manage to get through panto season last year as he had been so ill.
He added: “Barry loved being on stage, he loved being on TV - he loved people in general.”
The veteran entertainer had worked for decades alongside brother Paul Elliot appearing in nearly 300 episodes of ‘ChuckleVision’, making the show one of the longest-running kids’ series on UK television.
After news of Barry’s death was announced on Sunday, Paul’s wife Sue posted a message on his Twitter account on behalf of her “devastated” husband to thank well-wishers for their messages of support.
She wrote: “Paul has asked me to send a message to thank EVERYONE for your lovely messages this morning, he is absolutely devastated so unable to respond himself but your messages really do help and he knows Barry would so happy to know how much he was loved.”
He added in a statement: “I’ve not just lost my brother, I’ve lost my theatrical partner of many, many years and my very best friend.”
The pair had recently filmed a new series titled ‘Chuckle Time’ for Channel 5.
Barry had not been well towards the end of the filming and summer work was cancelled whilst he rested at his doctor’s request. Not long after this, his health deteriorated.