Kenneth Cope, who starred in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Coronation Street and the Carry On films, has died aged 93.

The actor made his name as the ghost detective Marty Hopkirk in the ITV supernatural detective series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and he played Jed Stone in Britain’s longest-running soap opera.

Cope’s former agent Sandra Chalmers, of the Artists Partnership, shared a statement from his family that read: “Ken passed away yesterday peacefully in his sleep with his wife and family by his side.”

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A character actor, proud Liverpudlian and a loyal supporter of Everton, Cope began his career in theatre before his natural talent for comedy made him a regular fixture in the acting industry and a name across film and TV.

Speaking to the PA news agency in 1994, Cope said he had “happy times” making Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). He added: “I used to think people liked it because they were happy times when we made it. The sun was always shining.

“As a kid you wanted to be Superman, you wanted to be able to do things, to find the magic stone and rub it and a genie would appear. Randall and Hopkirk was quite escapist. There was a nice guy there who could do magical things.”

But it was Cope’s earlier breakout role as Jed Stone in Coronation Street that pushed him into the limelight during the 1960s. A thief and a charmer, Jed became the lodger and occasionally helpful friend of Minnie Caldwell, played by Margot Bryant – whom Cope would go on to present a tribute programme to in 1988.

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Cope went on to star in two Carry On films, Carry On at Your Convenience and Carry On Matron, and he also appeared in 1964’s Carry On Jack in an uncredited role.