Boycie was a snob, a spiv and a braggart - but audiences loved him

• John Challis was never meant to become an icon of British comedy. In 1981 the actor, who has passed away aged 79, was approached by writer John Sullivan to play a used car salesman named Terrance Aubrey Boyce in a modest new sitcom. It was intended to be a one-and-done cameo. Neither anticipated that anything at all would come of the part.