Chris Langham, the comedy writer and star of The Thick of It, has died aged 77 following a secret battle with pancreatic cancer, it has been revealed. Langham's once-thriving career on stage and screen collapsed in 2006 when he was convicted on 15 counts of downloading indecent images of children, just days after winning a Bafta for his role as bumbling minister Hugh Abbot. He spent his final years largely out of the public eye in Kent, having never fully returned to acting after his release from prison.

Langham died almost three months before the news emerged, with his death confirmed by The Times. He served just three months of his sentence at Elmley Prison before being released in 2007, but former colleagues and casting directors shunned him and two subsequent low-budget films flopped. He retreated to his family home in Cranbrook, Kent, where he ran an Airbnb cottage let for around £250 a night, and is survived by his second wife Chrissie, who stood by him throughout, along with their children Emily and James and older children from his first marriage to actress Sue Jones-Davies.