What a sad loss – Tom Wilkinson was quietly and consistently wonderful

‘His presence on any cast list has been enough to make you sit up and pay that little bit more attention, because you knew that he was going to bring to that film a touch of class, of wit, of style, of pathos, and and often a very English decency’ … Tom Wilkinson in 2002. Photograph: Matt Baron/BEI/REX/Shutterstock

For British movie audiences of a certain generation, there is one image of Tom Wilkinson that will always sum up his hold on our hearts: a paunchy, respectable bloke in a dole queue, wearing an anorak over his collar and tie, with a bunch of other depressed but much younger and scruffier males, shyly, almost unconsciously, practising some swaying erotic dance moves to the accompaniment of Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff.