Much loved actor Richard Briers dies after 5 year battle with emphysema

An adaptable actor, he was equally at ease in comedy and in Shakespeare, doing voiceover, on stage or on television. But it was comedy that he saw as his "first gift", explaining in a later interview that, "I have played straight drama, which I love, but I eventually miss doing comedy because we are in such miserable times. And I do feel that my purpose in life is to cheer people up."

Richard Briers will always be remembered as the affable, charming and ever-optimistic Tom Good in the Seventies BBC sitcom The Good Life. Playing opposite Felicity Kendal as his wife Barbara, they were the couple who tried to become self-sufficient in suburbia, encouraged and supported by their friends and neighbours the Leadbetters (Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith).

During the mid to late Eighties, it was in the role of Martin Bryce in Ever Decreasing Circles that Briers delighted television audiences. He played a middle-aged man at the heart of his local community who imagines himself in competition with his neighbour and rival, Paul, played by Peter Egan.

Briers was awarded an OBE in 1989 and a CBE in 2003 for services to drama.

He was diagnosed with lung disease in 2008, the result of smoking what he estimated as some 500,000 cigarettes during his lifetime.

Interview with Richard Briers:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2271496/Richard-Briers-battling-chronic-lung-disease--lifelong-friend-Prunella-Scales-shocking-confession-own.html

Obituary:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/richard-briers--muchloved-actor-of-stage-and-screen-who-rose-to-prominence-as-a-pioneering-suburban-spirit-in-the-good-life-8500350.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2283352/Quit-smoking--enjoy-good-life.html