Legendary ventriloquist Keith Harris admitted he "created a monster" when he introduced his loveable puppet Orville the duck to the world. The entertainer, born in 1947, was best known for his TV programme The Keith Harris Show - as well as his popular acts with both Orville the duck and Cuddles the monkey. His 1982 single Orville's Song even reached number four in the UK charts.

But through it all, Harris lived a difficult life off-screen. He was married four separate times, lastly to former model Sarah Metcalf, with whom he welcomed two children - daughter Kitty and son Shenton. He also shared daughter Skye with his first wife Jacqui Scott.

When his hit show was axed for good in 1990, Keith fell into a depression. He began drinking heavily and even contemplated suicide, admitting he considered drowning himself in the local duck pond.

He said: "When your bubble bursts and you're not as popular - you'd been playing to 3,000 people in a theatre and then go out and there are 30 people - it's very deflating."

He lost most of the millions he made throughout his career, admitting that he "lost it all" despite making £7million. He said: "It's all down to [my] dyslexia. I can't read or write.

"Reading contracts? I didn't, I just signed them. I got into trouble many times. I signed myself away for 14 years to someone once - 25% I was paying. I had no idea."

And despite the public's love for his puppet Orville, Keith said he had "created a monster". He told Louis Theroux in 2008: "It's very hard to get away from that. Everybody knows Orville, not everybody knows Keith Harris."

But he insisted: "I can't say he's been a burden, but he put me into a pigeon-hole."

When he first laid eyes on the puppet, Harris "hated" him. He explained: "I just happened to have this green fur lying about and had this idea for a little bird that was green and ugly and thought he wasn't loved.

"I hated him. But I took him to the girls in the dressing room next door and they said 'Ah, ain't he lovely'. The first time I used him he was an instant hit."

Despite a resurgence in popularity in his later years, with Harris making money at holiday camps and starring on Celebrity Big Brother, by 2015 he had received the awful news that he had incurable cancer. The cancer spread to his liver despite a bone marrow transplant and Harris died at the age of just 67 in April 2015.

Since then, allegations have emerged about Harris being "naughty", with Mel Giedroyc claiming he "got a bit naughty nineties" with her co-star Sue Perkins on a chat show.

Speaking on the Parenting Hell podcast, she explained: "It was the 90s, there was a lot going down. The most memorable of all of the lunches. This was absolutely marvellous. We had three puppeteers with their puppets for lunch.

"It was like having six guests around the table. We had Keith Harris and Orville... who got a bit naughty with Sue [Perkins]... Harris via Orville. He got a bit naughty nineties."

Her co-host Rob Beckett said: "Because you forget it's a hand in there, don't you?" as Mel agreed: "There's a ruddy hand."

Her fellow star Josh Widdicombe said: "They'd get away with it by claiming it was a grey area," while Mel said, "Exactly."

Harris didn't escape controversy during his lifetime, either. When he first met Louis Theroux in 2002, he was described as a "nervous, edgy man who kept telling rotten jokes". Later he defended his use of blackface on The Black and White Minstrel Show, arguing: "Eddie Murphy whites up, so why can't white people black up?"

He was arrested for drink driving and ended up in Alcoholics' Anonymous, spending a night behind bars before managing to turn his life around.