Ambassador of Mirth Hal Roach passes away, aged 84

“Did you hear the one about the Kerryman who was disqualified at the tug of war contest? He was pushing!”

How about: “You know it is summer in Ireland when the rain gets warmer.”

That’s the kind of almost sweet and almost wholesome, but thoroughly good-natured kind of humour employed by the veteran funnyman Hal Roach, who died yesterday aged 84. It was also the kind of humour that made him almost rich and almost famous.