A DEARNE actor has paid tribute to Bobby Knutt, who was due to guest star on his sitcom later this year.

Dean Sills, from the Ringway, Bolton-upon-Dearne, had been in talks with Bobby for him to make a guest appearance in the season two finale of his show Up North.

Those plans have now been replaced with a special tribute to Bobby, who died month while abroad, aged 71.

Up North follows common as muck Mick Smith and his adventures with neighbour Geoffrey Devi.

It originally aired on Essex TV before moving to new home channel Sheffield Live!.

Dean said: “Bobby was going to play my Dad in the show Norman Smith in the episode Another Christmas Up North. This is the last episode of the second series.

“It came about because I am Facebook friends with Bobby and when he was filming Benidorm I just messaged him while he was still in Spain and asked him if he would like to be in Up North and he said he would love to.

“Once he got back home to Elsecar from Spain we talked about it on the phone a number of times and we were due to film with Bobby on October 7 after he got back from his holiday in France.

“He even took his script to learn and said ‘Eyup Dean, I’ll take the script and learn it while I’m there. Looking forward to it mate.’

“It was a secret only a few of the cast knew and we were all excited, especially the director Steve Call. I am shocked and saddened the last thing he said to me on the phone was ‘God Bless’.

“I will miss Bobby because he was such a pleasure to talk to and hearing his wonderful stories was a real joy. I grew up watching The Comedians on TV with my Dad where I first saw Bobby and now my two children are fans of Bobby thanks to Benidorm.

“I feel honoured how we are blessed to get stars like Billy Pearce, Bernie Clifton in our low budget show who are now good friends and we feel Bobby would have added so much to the show, it shows what a gem he was after starring in Benidorm and looking forward to working on Up North.”