Freddie Starr dies, age 76

I know comedy is subjective but I never got the hate his Hitler routine gets nowadays. Whether or not you find it funny, I struggle to see why people seem it offensive and distasteful. He's mocking one of the most evil men in history. I seriously hope we're not at the stage where we're afraid of offending Nazis.

I think we're probably past that stage, though it would be argued mocking the Nazis is seen as mocking their offences and therefore their victims.

Mocking the Nazis and Hitler in particular was a notable part of the war effort.

Maybe it's considered "punching down" now we know the Nazis lost

It’s clearly not about offending Nazis.

A man who brought suffering, misery and hardship to countless millions, and then I'll move on to talk about Adolf Hitler.

See, the thing I never got was that in the main, Starr's audience, was working class, and of an age where they felt the force of the untold hurt and damage, death and destruction that was caused trying to defeat Hitlers wicked ideological hatred of a particular religion.

So, why they found Freddies 'impersonation' of him so hilarious, is puzzling.

But then Spike Milligan littered the Q series with exactly the same imagery, so, hmm.

You really don't get why the audience you've described would get a kick out of mocking Hitler?

It wasn't a completely serious "impression" of Hitler, let us not forget - there was no "death to Jews" sort of chant as part of the act and no Gestapo salute - it was purely played for laughs. Could you seriously imagine Hitler in Swastika shorts?

If the act had been done more seriously then yes we would have a problem. But it wasn't, and I think we may be reading too much into that one act.

Going off topic somewhat here but there’s an excellent German film on Netflix called Look Who’s Back, which is about Hitler coming back to life in 2014 Berlin; a filmmaker comes across him, thinks he’s an elaborate performance artist, and makes Hitler a YouTube sensation.

YouTube would be lethal with the wrong characters. Can you imagine the Demon Headmaster on YouTube? It would make his life so much easier.

At the end of this Des O'Connor skit, Freddie returns in his Hitler costume, which has everything to do with being a vehicle for him to get some great visual gags, rather than dressing up as a Nazi. From 16.20 onwards.