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Actor and lead singer with the Flying Pickets during the early 1980s, he went on to take roles in several popular TV series, including Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale

Brian Hibbard, who has died of prostate cancer aged 65, first found fame as a member of the Flying Pickets, a group of actors who left the socialist playwright John McGrath's 7:84 theatre group to woo audiences through their a cappella singing. They topped the pop charts in 1983 with a cover version of Only You, trumping Yazoo, the duo of Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke, who had reached No 2 with their original recording. This Christmas No 1 single and the group's flamboyant look – gaudy suits, large hats and Hibbard's massive sideburns – led to brief stardom for the Flying Pickets, a name coined because some of them had supported the miners during their strikes of 1972 and 1974. They hit the Top 10 again with another cover,...