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Ken Lee obituary

My friend Ken Lee, who has died aged 85 from heart failure and leukemia, enjoyed a successful and immensely productive career as a painter, theatre designer, playwright and art school teacher. He was a multi-talented yet self-effacing man and both his professional and personal life were imbued with playfulness, droll humour and warm, effervescent charm.

Born in Thornaby, North Yorkshire, the child of Fred, a grocer, and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Brockett), a domestic servant, Ken attended Middlesbrough high school between 1946 and 1952. He went on to study at the town’s art college. There, he met Marie Phillips, who would become his wife in 1962.

After a period of national service, he won a place on the prestigious painting course at the Slade School of Art, where his tutors included Lucian Freud, although Ken told me that Freud’s contribution as a teacher extended no further than peering into the studios. (“I reckon he only took the job because he wanted a central London parking space.”)

From the Slade, Ken decamped to the British School at Rome, where he was awarded a two-year painting scholarship. On his return to Britain in 1962, he took teaching jobs at the art colleges in Leeds and then Nottingham. He and Marie meanwhile had three children – Annabel, Miranda and Joshua. Like them, several generations of students, notably the movie director Jonathan Glazer, benefited from his gift for nurturing artistic talent.

Alongside his teaching, Ken continued to paint. In 1970 he was featured in a four-man exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London, but he was more interested in creating pictures than exhibiting them.

Keen as ever to find fresh outlets for his abundant creativity, he began scripting Happy As a Sandbag, a musical about 1940s England. His show pre-empted Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven by conjuring its chosen era through the hit songs of that period. It became a popular West End production at the Ambassadors in 1975, spawning a 1977 BBC television adaptation, not to mention frequent revivals. Another of Ken’s musicals, the rock’n’roll themed 1976 show Leave Him To Heaven, followed a similar trajectory, its West End production being re-staged for a BBC film.

Over subsequent years, Ken expanded his repertoire by designing a production of The Magic Flute, originally for Scottish Opera in 1992, which was also presented at the Royal Opera House and the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. Regardless of whether he was dreaming up a stage set, painting a portrait, or talking to one of his grandchildren, he left the imprint of his beguiling personality.

He is survived by Marie and their children, nine grandchildren, and his sister, Joan.