Producer and director of some of Britain’s greatest sitcoms, from The Likely Lads and Porridge to The Liver Birds and Yes Minister
Sydney Lotterby, who has died aged 93, was a prolific producer and director of many classic television sitcoms, including Porridge, Open All Hours and Yes Minister.
While he modestly passed off his part in the success of such an incredible roster of popular programmes as “absolute luck”, it was also down to spotting a good script, as with Prisoner and Escort, the 1973 pilot for Porridge, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, which he regarded as “so clever”.