[citation needed] The series, with the theme tune "Pop Goes the Weasel", had episodes lasting 25 minutes in which Hearne assumed the character of "Mr Pastry" – an old man with a walrus moustache, dressed in a black suit or raincoat and with a trademark bowler hat.

The Mr Pastry character had originated in the 1936 stage show Big Boy in which Hearne had appeared with Fred Emney.

A Mr Pastry film The Time of His Life, was subsequently released in 1955, but portrayed the lead character as a pathetic figure coming out of prison and totally different from the TV series' bumbling comic.

[citation needed] In 1963, Hearne became President of the Lord's Taverners charity and he subsequently raised money for hundreds of hydrotherapy pools.

He had lived at Platt Farm, a fifteenth-century property in Long Mill Lane in the village, from the 1940s, and ran a market garden there.