Ronnie Knight, the former London club owner, wide boy, convicted criminal and ex-husband of the actor Barbara Windsor, played as big a part as anyone in establishing the south of Spain as the “Costa del Crime”. For many years he acted as an unofficial consul for British criminals seeking a home away from the bothersome gaze of the police.
Knight, who has died aged 89, first came to public attention in the 1960s through his marriage to Windsor, then a rising star of musicals, whom he had started dating while still married to his childhood sweetheart June, the mother of his two children. He dabbled in various illegal enterprises, including a Soho peep-show business, although some of the large profits had to be handed over to corrupt Scotland Yard detectives. A very sociable if flash character, he found his metier running the Artistes and Repertoire nightclub in London, which changed its name to the A&R. It became a hang-out for members of showbusiness and the underworld, reflecting the mutual fascination between those two worlds in the 60s and 70s.
