John Leeson, the actor best known as the voice of K9, the robot dog in Doctor Who , has died at 83.

Leeson’s son, Guy Ducker, shared the news on Facebook. He wrote: “I regret to announce the death of my father … after a summer of illness. The end was peaceful.”

In a separate post on social media, Ducker said: “Many thanks to the Whovian community for the love they showed to my father over the decades, it meant a lot to him and me.”

Born John Ducker in 1943, he trained at Rada before embarking on a successful career on stage and screen. He was known for his character work across a range of TV shows such as Dad’s Army, Sorry!, Crown Court and Longitude, while other credits included The Bill, Vanity Fair, Doctors and Blake’s 7.…