In 1954 he began to study the violin at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen but he switched after about a

In 1954 he began to study the violin at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, but he switched after about a year to vocal studies. He was singing the role for the first time, while Puccini’s opera was receiving its first performance at the theatre.
Kurt Westi was born in 1939 in the Danish island of Oro. After many years spent abroad, mainly in other Scandinavian countries or in Germany, in the 1994/5 season Westi returned to Copenhagen to the Royal Theatre, and scored a huge success as Calaf in Turandot. Although his repertory, to match his voice and vocal style, was mainly Italian, he had recently taken on some German roles, including Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos and Lohengrin, which seemed to offer a new direction.

In a 35-year operatic career Kurt Westi developed from a light lyric tenor with a sweet-toned but small voice into the robust interpreter of Verdi’s Manrico, Don Carlos and Radames, and Puccini’s Rodolfo, Cavaradossi and Pinkerton. His work as a cartoonist has been displayed at both the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.Rushton was also the author of humorous books such as William Rushton’s Dirty Book (1964), The Filth Amendment (1981) and Willie Rushton’s Great Moments of History (1985) and the spoofs The Day of the Grocer (1971), Superpig (1976) and Spy Thatcher (1987), as well as Every Cat in the Book (1993).Anthony HaywardWilliam George Rushton, cartoonist, writer, actor and broadcaster: born London 18 August 1937; married 1968 Arlene Dorgan (one son); died London 11 December 1996.. Earlier this year, he toured with Barry Cryer in the stage show Two Old Farts in the Night.To the end, Rushton continued to provide cartoons to a publications ranging from the Daily Telegraph to the Literary Review and Private Eye (for a long time he contributed a contents page illustration to the Independent Magazine), as well as illustrating for the Channel Four television series Rory Bremner Who Else? (1993-96). He also starred as the overgrown schoolboy Nigel Molesworth in the four-part BBC radio series Molesworth (1987) and was in demand as a storyteller for Jackanory on television. Rushton’s own series Rushton’s Illustrated (1980) failed to make a great impression and most of his subsequent television appearances were as guest in quiz and game shows such as Celebrity Squares (1985-89).His quickfire wit found a more appropriate outlet through 27 series of the BBC Radio 4 show I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, starting with its first broadcast in 1967.

Complete with red beard, kilt and woolly hat, the character was one of three commandos captured on the French coast and taken to the infamous castle. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, he also took cameo roles in the films Nothing But the Best (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Monte Carlo or Bust (1969), The Bliss of Mrs Blossom (1968), Flight of the Doves (1971) and Adventures of a Private Eye (1977).In 1974, Rushton turned up in a dramatic role on television as Major Trumpington in the BBC series Colditz. The painful puns and double entendre lacked the subtlety and wit of the TW3 crowd.Rushton’s theatrical career continued on an occasional basis with Gulliver’s Travels (Mermaid Theatre, 1971, 1979) and Eric Idle’s Pass the Butler (Globe Theatre, 1982). Satirical but of lesser stature was his appearance as Plautus in the Frankie Howerd series Up Pompeii! (1970), scripted by the writer of the Carry On film series, Talbot Rothwell, and starring Howerd as a Roman slave in ancient Pompeii. In TW3 vein, Rushton found his talents used more successfully in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s legendary series Not Only But Also (1965- 66).

“My basic defence is Blitz humour,” he once said.Another failure was Rushton’s short run as host, with the actress Jill Browne, of the television show The New Stars and Garters (1965), a retitled series of the traditional pub entertainment variety show Stars and Garters. Those who knew him reflected that he used humour as a smokescreen to avoid discussing serious issues in a pretentious way. Although a lifelong Labour Party supporter, he later admitted that he was not “very good with organisations”. Although controversial, the programme lacked the biting humour of the original.In the meantime, egged on by his Private Eye colleagues, Rushton stood against Alec Douglas-Home in the 1963 Kinross by-election but won only 45 votes. As well as his Harold Macmillan impersonation, Rushton was remembered affectionately for his Colonel Buffie Cohen characterisation but also had to endure complaints about his scruffiness on the show.The sequel, Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1964-65), broadcast on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, failed to find the same formula for success and Rushton left, disenchanted, after only a few weeks.

It quickly caught the imagination of the viewing public, with audiences of up to 13 million and, one week, as many as 443 angry phone calls. The programme provided an outlet for writers such as Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall, Malcolm Bradbury, John Cleese, David Nobbs, Jack Rosenthal and Dennis Potter. The timing was perfect for the new Saturday-night show produced by Ned Sherrin, with Beyond the Fringe playing to packed houses in London and the Establishment Club satirists creating new targets for their uncompromising wit.The previously unknown David Frost was chosen to present TW3, as it became known, and his regular cohorts included Rushton, Roy Kinnear, Kenneth Cope, Lance Percival, John Wells, John Bird, Eleanor Bron and Roy Hudd, while Millicent Martin performed songs giving topical events a similarly irreverent perspective. This led to an invitation to join the team that was to launch upon the nation That Was the Week That Was (1962-63) on BBC television. The magazine, launched in 1961, proved a huge success and it was Rushton’s cartoons that helped to establish its distinctive identity.In the same year, he made his professional stage debut in Spike Milligan’s nuclear attack satire The Bed-Sitting Room at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.