{"id":82308,"date":"2025-08-21T09:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82308\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T09:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:54:07","slug":"bbc-comedian-died-penniless-with-body-unclaimed-for-weeks-after-tragic-death-celebrity-news-showbiz-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82308\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC comedian died penniless with body unclaimed for weeks after tragic death | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

An iconic 80s comedian<\/a> died without a penny to his name and with his body going unclaimed<\/a> for weeks in a tragic twist of fate. Roy Jay was best known for his high-profile BBC<\/a> appearances, popping up on TV programmes including The Bob Monkhouse Show, The Little and Large Show and The Main Attraction at the height of his fame.<\/p>\n

But the British-Norwegian star had a tragic end to his life. Things started to go wrong after he was charged with indecent exposure in 1984, when he dropped his trousers live on-stage in front of a family audience at the Park Club in Jersey. He was fined \u00a3200 \u2013 but worse, his public image took a huge blow.<\/p>\n

Roy found himself banned from numerous clubs across the country even before the indecent exposure conviction. But it was the final nail in the coffin for his televised career.<\/p>\n

Though he managed to carry on his stand-up career in his later years, his TV work dried up. Eventually the star died in Alicante, Spain, in December 2007 at the age of 59, without a penny to his name.<\/a> His body went unclaimed for two weeks.<\/p>\n

His death was said to be caused by alcohol abuse. His funeral, held at Villajojosa Crematorium, had to be funded by a local Spanish businessman who was also Roy\u2019s close friend.<\/p>\n

Roy is still remembered fondly for his TV work<\/a> and his later career at a club in Benidorm. One fan said at the time of his death: \u201cTerrible news about Roy. I never did see him but will remember with fondness his TV work back in the day. RIP Mr Slither.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone else said: \u201cI did see him in Benidorm in the late 1980s at the Talk of the Coast, which is now the Ambassador Playa. I remember the place was packed and everyone was having a great laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third echoed: \u201cA very talented but tormented guy who is all but forgotten today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An iconic 80s comedian died without a penny to his name and with his body going unclaimed for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[41642,243,41639,2283,41637,2973,41638,96,59,12109,41635,41636,41640,41641,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-82308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-80s-comedy","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-bob-monkhouse","11":"tag-celebrity-deaths","12":"tag-comedians","13":"tag-comedy","14":"tag-dead-comedians","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-gb","17":"tag-net-worth","18":"tag-roy-jay","19":"tag-roy-jay-comedian","20":"tag-the-little-and-large-show","21":"tag-the-main-attraction","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}