John Savident: Bellowing butcher Fred Elliott in Coronation Street

After 45 years on stage and screen as a dependable character actor, often in authority roles, John Savident, who has died aged 86, gained his greatest fame as the brash master butcher Fred Elliott in Coronation Street.

The bellowing Fred was renowned for repeating sentences, usually joined together with the words, “I say.” Savident said he was influenced in this by both Foghorn Leghorn, the Looney Tunes cartoon character, and the way Lancashire mill workers spoke as they struggled to be heard above the noise of the looms.

Fred was first seen in 1994 on a trip to the fictional Weatherfield’s “twin” town in France to take part in a black pudding contest – threatening the twinning arrangement by trying to bribe a judge.

The widower showed a softer side when he proposed to merry), but was knocked for six when both turned him down.