Horror guy

So, farewell then, Jimmy Sangster.

Jimmy who? Welsh-born Sangster, who has died aged 83, was a key figure in the rise and rise of Hammer Films, writing and or directing some of the British studio's biggest hits from the mid-50s starting with home-grown versions of Dracula and Frankenstein.

Just a brief roll call of his credits perfectly conjure up a deliciously lurid idea of his specialist craft: The Trollenberg Terror, Jack the Ripper, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, Paranoiac, Nightmare, Taste of Fear, Hysteria ... the list goes on.

Even the title of his 1997 memoirs had a memorable ring: "Do you want it good or Tuesday?"

No news yet of how the great man finally succumbed but it's unlikely to have been as spectacularly as some of the bizarre deaths he devised for his characters.