Body of Bob Monkhouse's son to be flown home

The body of Bob Monkhouse's son is ready to be flown back to the UK from Thailand.

Simon Monkhouse was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on April 14 but details of his death have only just been released, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

The comedian's spokesman Peter Pritchard said the body of 46-year-old Simon has now been released by Thai authorities.

There are no suspicious circumstances. Arrangements will now be made for his funeral, said Mr Pritchard.

He said the family were informed at the time of Simon's death but the story had only just been revealed to the media.

Simon, a primary school teacher who lived alone in a south London council flat, was one of three children from Monkhouse's marriage to his first wife Elizabeth, now aged 73. The couple, who were together for 18 years, married when Monkhouse was 20.

Simon fell out publicly with his famous father last year when he told how he had not spoken to the 72-year-old star for 10 years.

Simon was put into psychoanalysis at the age of nine because his parents believed he had repressed anger. When the couple split up he was sent to a boarding school.

It is not the first tragedy to have hit the Monkhouse family. Simon had a brother Gary, who had cerebral palsy and died in 1992 aged 40, as well as a sister Abigail, now 41.

Bob Monkhouse presents the BBC1 lunchtime quiz show Wipe-out. Simon had been performing comic poetry on the club circuit for the past six years.