An absolute original. RIP

Gervais leads tributes to The Office's deadpan scene-stealer

- MARK JEFFERIES

EWEN MacIntosh's Big Keith never had much screen time in The Office but he stole every scene he was in with perfectly timed deadpan delivery.

The comedian and actor, who has died aged 50, helped elevate Ricky Gervais's first sitcom to cult classic status by providing some of the show's best-loved and most quotable moments.

He drove Gervais's David Brent to distraction by failing to get the point of an appraisal ("under strengths', you've put 'accounts... that's your job, though"); he dressed as a mirthless Ali G for Comic Relief; he ate a lot of Scotch eggs.

And he did it all with a studied, slack-jawed vacancy - borrowed, he said, from Christopher Guest's performance in Spinal Tap.