TV producer Beryl Vertue, whose company created the series Men Behaving Badly and Sherlock, has died aged 90.
The media executive, who rose to the top of the industry after starting as a secretary, “passed away peacefully” on Saturday, her family said, reports BBC.
Industry colleagues called her one of the most influential women in British TV. Daughters Sue and Debbie, producers at the company their mother founded, said: “She meant so much to so many.”
Vertue’s career began when she was asked by the writers of Steptoe and Son, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, to type up their scripts.
In the mid-1950s, she began representing figures such as sitcom scriptwriter Johnny Speight and comedian Frankie Howerd, in effect becoming a talent agent.
She also had success selling shows such as Til Death Us Do Part and All In The Family to the US market.
In 1979, she founded Hartswood films, producing a series of shows including the 1990s sitcom Men Behaving Badly, which starred Martin Clunes, Neil Morrissey, Leslie Ash and Caroline Quentin.
Her company was also behind the critically acclaimed drama Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch, produced by Vertue and her daughter Sue, who is married to the series co-creator Steven Moffat.
Sue and Debbie said in a statement that their mother had remained sharp until the end of her life, continuing to grill her daughters about work in her final days.
“I know we’re not alone in thinking that somehow she’d go on forever. She meant so much to so many,” they said.
“She wasn’t just our mum, she was our best friend, our mentor, our adviser, our role model, our holiday companion, our giggle-maker and our boss!”
They said that “she was often the last person at a party, she didn’t suffer fools, she was fair, she was kind, she was fun, she was stubborn, in fact she was the total package and we will miss her beyond words”.
“She was more than a mother to us – she was also a friend. To many in the industry she was more than a friend – she was often a mother,” her daughters added.
Writer and actor Mark Gatiss – who co-created Sherlock and played the detective’s brother, Mycroft – paid tribute to her “extraordinary legacy”, from helping to type out scripts for the Goon Show to representing Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks.
“She saw it all and did most of it,” he said. “But foremost – a wonderful woman, a loyal colleague and an absolute scream. She was loved.”
Actor and comedian Dawn French called her “mighty and marvellous” and said her death was “a huge loss”.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, said Vertue was “one of the most influential women in British broadcasting” who “literally helped shape the TV industry as we know it today”.
Vertue was made an OBE in 2000 and a CBE in 2016 for her work in the TV industry.
She also received a series of industry awards, including Bafta’s Alan Clarke award for outstanding creative contribution to television in 2004.
In March 2012 she was recognised for her lifetime achievement at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards, and in 2016 she was presented with a similar award from Cumberbatch at the Women in Film and TV Awards.
