Geoffrey Perkins: a career in pictures

Geoffrey Perkins, who has died in a road accident aged 55, will forever be associated with some of the most popular TV comedies of his generation - Father Ted, Drop The Dead Donkey, Spitting Image, The Fast Show, Have I Got News For You, The Catherine Tate Show, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the Harry Enfield programmes … the list goes on and on Photograph: Public domain

Well, it was called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Perkins (second from left) and author Douglas Adams (far left) of the BBC Radio 4 show thumb a lift back in 1979. Also pictured are cast members David Tate (man of many voices), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent) and Alan Ford (Roosta) Photograph: BBC

More Hitchhiker’s with Perkins, in the producer role, stood at the back of the studio with Lisa Braun (studio manager), Colin Duff (studio manager), Douglas Adams (scriptwriter), Anne Ling (production secretary) and Alick Hale-Monro (studio manager) Photograph: BBC

Perkins was credited with devising the famous Mornington Crescent round on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. Pictured here are the show’s presenter Humphrey Lyttelton, who died on April 25 this year, and regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor Photograph: BBC

Spitting Image, one of the many TV comedies on which Perkins worked, ran on ITV from 1984 to 1996. Margaret Thatcher, pictured, had a penchant for men’s suits and urinating in urinals and was voiced by Steve Nallon Photograph: Carlton

Henry Davenport: 'Look, I need every inch I can get.' Sally Smedley: 'Yes, that's what I heard.' Two of the memorable characters from newsroom satire Drop The Dead Donkey, which ran on Channel 4 from 1990 to 1998 Photograph: Paramount

'Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on …' The cast of Channel 4’s Father Ted. Perkins produced the first series of the Bafta-winning sitcom. Co-creator Graham Linehan said: 'He gave the show a heart, and gave me, still young, and unsure as to what type of person I should try to become, someone to model myself on. I wish we'd worked together more' Photograph: Channel 4

Team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton on the BBC’s long-running panel game, Have I Got News For You Photograph: BBC/Hat Trick

Harry Enfield was one of the comics with whom Perkins collaborated most. Here he is with Kathy Burke as Wayne and Waynetta Slob in BBC1’s The Harry Enfield Show. Their daughter Frogmella is not pictured Photograph: UKTV

Perkins nurtured emerging talent such as Catherine Tate, here in Lauren Cooper mode, catchphrase: 'Bovvered' Photograph: BBC

A performer as well as a producer, here is Perkins at a one-off reunion in 2002 of the popular Radio Active series, which transferred to television as KYTV. Pictured alongside him are Michael Fenton-Stevens, Helen Atkinson-Wood and Angus Deayton Photograph: BBC

Perkins’ latest show, Harry and Paul, will begin on BBC1 on Friday. That’s Harry Enfield (on the left) and Paul Whitehouse Photograph: BBC

'Were you with a lady last night sir? Did she want it sir? Ooh, suits you!' Whitehouse again, this time with Mark Williams on BBC2’s The Fast Show Photograph: BBC

Another of Perkins’ recent projects, Benidorm starring Johnny Vegas, proved a returning hit for ITV1 Photograph: ITV