Although he did not invent the police-procedural novel, Hillary Waugh, who has died aged 88, defined this sub-genre of the detective story, in which the puzzle of the criminal's identity is sublimated to the unfolding police work. Waugh's 1952 novel Last Seen Wearing is generally considered the finest early example of the police procedural; the British critic Julian Symons included it in his list of the 100 greatest crime novels, on Raymond Chandler's recommendation.

Devizes people were surprised when actor George Baker and his wife came to live in their midst in 1990. But what surprised them even more was his openness, friendliness and lack of any self-importance or snobbery.

George Baker, the Market Lavington actor famed for playing Chief Inspector Wexford in the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, has died.

George Baker, the actor who died on October 7 aged 80, enjoyed good looks and matinee-idol roles early in his career, and even had a fling with Brigitte Bardot; he was best known, however, for playing the part of Inspector Wexford to great popular acclaim in late middle-age.

Versatile actor and writer best known as Inspector Wexford in the TV versions of Ruth Rendell's detective stories

George Baker - who rose to fame in 'The Dam Busters', was adored by millions as Inspector Wexford, and even had a dalliance with Brigitte Bardot - had the luck of the Bulgarians, says Robbie Collin

George Baker, the Market Lavington actor famed for playing Chief Inspector Wexford in the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, has died.

Celebrated TV and film star dies of pneumonia after recent stroke,

'He enjoyed being a character actor, being broad and having the chance to do so many different roles, and perhaps if he'd done that one he would have got typecast...'

George Baker, who starred as Chief Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, has died aged 80. His daughter Ellie Baker looks back at his life.

Versatile actor and writer best known as Inspector Wexford in the TV versions of Ruth Rendell's detective stories

The actor, who also appeared in The Dam Busters, The Spy Who Loved Me and I, Claudius, succumbed to pneumonia.

The 80-year-old, from West Lavington, Wiltshire, died of pneumonia on Friday after a recent stroke.

The actor George Baker, who played Chief Inspector Wexford in the television series The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, has died at the age of 80.

The TV star, from West Lavington, Wiltshire, died of pneumonia yesterday following a recent stroke, his daughter Ellie Baker said.

US actor whose success as the scruffy TV detective Columbo was complemented by a wide range of stage and screen roles.

Donald Hewlett, who was best known for his role in the 1970s BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum, has died aged 90.

Louie Ramsay achieved widespread fame when she played Dora, the down-to-earth wife of Chief Inspector Wexford in the Ruth Rendell Mysteries on ITV.

Paul Marcus produced three series of the Granada Television police drama Prime Suspect (1991 - 2006), winning an Emmy award for one of them. The programmes centred on Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. As the series progresses, Tennison has difficulties balancing her work with her private life, has an abortion, starts to rely on alcohol and finally becomes addicted to it. At the time Prime Suspect began, there were only four female DCIs working in Britain.

Perennially popular crime fiction novelist best known for the Inspector Ghote series.

The funeral of actress Louie Ramsay, who has died at the age of 81, has been held up because her only son is in hospital. Mr Baker, nearly 80, is now in a frail condition at Market Lavington nursing home, where Ms Ramsay died.

Louie Ramsay, who died on March 6 aged 81, was best known to television viewers as Dora, the spiky but down-to-earth wife of Chief Inspector Reg Wexford in the hugely popular Ruth Rendell Mysteries series on ITV.

Actor known for her role as Dora, the wife of Inspector Wexford in the popular TV series.

I am sad to announce that Louie passed away peacefully on the afternoon of Sunday, 6th March 2011.

Actor best known as the private detective Frank Marker in the television series Public Eye.

Susannah York, the actress who died on January 15 aged 72, was, along with Julie Christie and Sarah Miles, one of the quintessential faces of the 1960s, when her blonde hair and startling blue eyes won her an army of male admirers.

Character actor who was an ensemble player to the core

John Burgess obituary via @guardian

The 4th Lord Acton, who died on October 10 aged 69, was a banker, lawyer, human rights campaigner, writer and politician, who sat both as an hereditary peer and, following his ejection from the Upper House under the constitutional reform of 1999, an independent-minded life peer on the Labour benches.
In the Lords he was often seen in the tea room, drinking Coca-Cola alongside Ruth Rendell, the novelist and fellow Labour peer, a particular friend.

Claude Chabrol, who died on September 12 aged 80, was one of that group of critics-turned-film-makers who revolutionised French cinema in the late Fifties and came to be known as the "new wave".

Popular northern dramatist for TV, theatre and radio, his works guaranteed humour, heart and humanity.

With her beguiling round-eyed beauty and demure British manners, Jean Simmons - who has died aged 80 - crossed the Atlantic in 1950 to become one of Hollywood's most popular leading ladies.

Richard Todd, the actor, who died on December 3 aged 90, was one of the first British officers to land in Normandy in advance of the main D-Day landings and went on to become Britain's highest-earning matinee idol of the post-war years; his most memorable role was that of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, in The Dam Busters (1955), a film he carried with the help of Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis.

Coronation Street actress Maggie Jones died this morning, aged 75.

Award-winning writer renowned for thrillers such as The Rose of Tibet and The Chelsea Murders.

Troy Kennedy Martin, screenwriter behind The Italian Job as well as Z-Cars and Edge of Darkness on TV, dies of cancer

A suave and urbane actor, he found fame in the TV show Bergerac.

Actor Laurence Payne, who won fame on television as the 1920s detective Sexton Blake, has died at the age of 89.

Actor best known for his role in Softly, Softly: Task Force.

Actor who played the station boss in the TV series Starsky & Hutch.

Pat Kavanagh, the UK's best-known literary agent, who represented a string of leading writers for decades, died today at the age of 68. Kavanagh, married to the novelist Julian Barnes, had scaled the heights of her profession, representing writers including Ruth Rendell, Margaret Drabble, Robert Harris, Joanna Trollope, Andrew Motion, Clive James and Wendy Cope. She died this morning of a brain tumour, a spokesman for the company she co-founded, United Agents, said.

"She became my muse as a director, and when I moved to TV, whether it was the mother of a lost child in the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, a sophisticated fraudster in Perfect Scoundrels or other parts in Casualty or Juliet Bravo, she was always my first choice."

The actor Peter Coke, who has died aged 95, will be remembered for having brought his firm delivery and precise diction to the role of Paul Temple. For audiences on the Light Programme, he became what BBC publicity once termed "radio's famous investigator"...

CHESTER-born comedian and actor Hugh Lloyd MBE, famed for co-starring with the legendary Tony Hancock, has died aged 85.

Elizabeth Spriggs, actor, born September 18 1929; died July 2 2008.

British author Michael Dibdin, known for his Italian detective Aurelio Zen, has died aged 60, his publisher says.

Actor Gareth Hunt, star of The New Avengers, has died of pancreatic cancer aged 65, his agent has announced.

Actor Derek Waring, who found fame as Detective Inspector Goss in BBC drama Z-Cars, has died of cancer aged 79.

Anna Cropper, who died on January 22 aged 68, was a gifted actress who made her name in the 1960s, when she was noted for her vulnerability, humour and emotional depth, particularly in her work with Arnold Wesker, John Bowen and David Mercer.

Veteran British actor Tom Bell has died at the age 73 after a short illness, his agent said.

21 April 1929 - 25 October 2005

1944 - 2006