Tributes to father as Children in Need comedy act turns to tragedy

Brian Grundell was being congratulated on his performance by dozens of staff from legal firm Lupton Fawcett at their office in Leeds on Friday evening when he collapsed from a suspected heart attack.

The 63-year-old father-of-three was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where medics tried in vain to revive him.

His widow Lorna, 60, said yesterday she had received a phone call at 8.15pm Friday. “I was told could I get myself to hospital as quickly as possible. I said, ‘Bloody hell! How much has he had to drink?’ I was told he was still conscious but in fact he had already died.”

The couple had been planning to sell up and buy a mobile home to tour Europe in their retirement.

Mrs Grundell added: “I can’t put it into words how much I cared for him. He was a really good father and granddad, and he loved to party.”

Her husband had already detailed his funeral plans in a red exercise book in May 2004 after suffering an aneurysm which he believed would be fatal but from which he in fact recovered.

Mrs Grundell added: “We will be sticking to what he put in there.”

Mr Grundell, who was Batley born and bred, was a highly experienced litigation executive at Lupton’s. Director Howard Rutter said: “He was a very well-liked and popular member of staff.”

He leaves a daughter, Eleanor, 22, from his 26-year marriage to Lorna and two sons, Edward and Guy, from a previous marriage.