![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dcc46385aa1d8ba521d3a40468af1d32078f42df.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
October 17, 2026 \u2014 5:50am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n The first time I met Richard Morecroft was at the Crows Nest Hotel, a short walk from the ABC\u2019s Gore Hill studios. This was 1986. I was mid-20s, working behind the bar. Richard was more like 30, the media star making a rare cameo for his single drink. Tongue-tied, I didn\u2019t start a conversation. Nor did Richard recall this episode when we ended up working together some 30 years later.<\/p>\n Then again, why would he? Richard was a constant in our lounge room, and I was an arts grad earning travel money. He was the voice of confirmation, the emotional anchor of the Space Shuttle disaster which happened that same month. In fact, it was around this time Richard had adopted Archie, the orphaned grey-headed flying fox. For all I know, he might have smuggled the little guy into the pub. I can\u2019t say. We never chatted. And he left soon after.<\/p>\n Advance the clock, switch the setting. We meet as colleagues, along with a maths whiz called Lily Serna, the three of us co-hosts of SBS\u2019s Letters and Numbers<\/a> in 2010. If you haven\u2019t seen the show, think parlour games dabbling with equations or anagrams. Lily aligned the numbers, while I flapped the dictionary to verify words. Sitting at the calm centre, Richard was the puzzle ambassador, with licence to play.<\/p>\n And he loved it, and we loved him<\/a>. Everyone loved Richard, the reasons multiple. Leigh Sales, a long-time ABC friend, on marking Richard\u2019s death last week, described him as both a gentleman, and a gentle man. Which was perfect. Gentle is the first word that sprang to my mind too. For Lily, it was grand. For both of us: generous.<\/p>\n Between episodes, the newsroom vet was our TV whisperer. Lily and I were babies compared to Richard\u2019s storied career, though he\u2019d never play that superior card. Quite the opposite. He mucked in with us, chatted via the make-up mirror, laughed at script meetings, encouraged us, gave us wings. We were his next Archies in a way, and we felt safe in his presence. Only right for a bloke whose surname yields comforter, the anagram.<\/p>\n Related Article Away from the games, Richard became a mate. We talked at length about pobblebonks, Brahminy kites, and other animals we adored. We discussed Nick Cave\u2019s music, Mad Men, photography, China Mieville\u2019s books. After half a lifetime reading autocue stories, Richard was loaded with his own, but only if you asked, since he was more interested in listening. He joined my poker friends one night under the cowboy alias of Rifleman and cleaned out every penny. I came to know Alison, too, his cool bohemian partner, whose profound loss I can only imagine.<\/p>\n On news of his death, Richard leaving us on his own terms<\/a> after a rare and aggressive cancer diagnosis, Lily and I shared our shock by phone. The so-called Letters guy was struggling for words. Though Numbers managed to say, \u201cWe\u2019ve lost someone the world needs right now.\u201d That\u2019s the phrase I\u2019ve been nursing ever since, smuggled beneath my jacket. The weight of the news and what it means to live in this world without a Richard Morecroft.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/efe10f80055dd5168eaf70a7abab51d399e41e1f.jpeg\")
Richard Morecroft (centre) with Lily Serna and David Astle on the set of Letters and Numbers.SBS<\/p>\n![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb922a568c4161c5627b95bf591d722d9ef2d106.jpeg\")
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![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792193057_365_dcc46385aa1d8ba521d3a40468af1d32078f42df.png\")