Simon Bird breaks silence over Paul Ritter's death saying he ‘loved and looked up to him'
His wife in the show Tamsin Greig also penned an emotional letter following the news.
In an essay for the Guardian, she wrote: “I first saw Paul on stage in Alan Ayckbourn’s Norman Conquests trilogy at the Old Vic in 2008.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off him. When I was told that they wanted him to play Martin Goodman in the pilot episode of Friday Night Dinner, I said: ‘You get him and I’m in.’
“Not only did Paul deliver in the role, he far surpassed everyone’s expectations – surprising, versatile, oddball, rooted in the clearest truth and always utterly, heart-stoppingly hilarious.”
This followed her sharing an image of the pair on her Instagram page calling the news “heartbreaking”.
