The actor Kenneth Cope, who has died aged 93, was more of a household face than a household name insofar as he was primarily associated with three roles in wildly successful television series: the street trader Jed Stone in Coronation Street (1961-66; returning in 2008-09); the ghostly private detective Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969-70); and Ray Hilton in Brookside (1999-2002).
He was, however, plain Kenneth Cope, a likely lad with an impish manner in a smart grey suit, in one of the most groundbreaking, if short-lived, BBC television programmes of the last century, the Saturday-night satire show That Was The Week That Was, or TW3, hosted by David Frost and produced by Ned Sherrin for two series (a total of 37 shows, each running for 50 minutes) in 1962 and 1963.
