Death shock for Summer Wine crew

Apr 18 2001 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE WOMAN who was killed after being run over by a pair of handbag thieves was a talented costume designer who had worked on Last of the Summer Wine.

Police are still hunting the two muggers who killed TV costume designer Liz Sherlock for the £20 in her handbag.

Mrs Sherlock, 42, of Chiswick, west London, chased the muggers after they had grabbed her handbag while she was in a cafe in London.

Today, the writer and creator of Last of the Summer Wine- filmed in Holmfirth - paid tribute to her.

Roy Clarke said: "This was a very brutal and seedy death, showing how the world seems to be going these days."

The BBC said Mrs Sherlock - who worked under her maiden name of Liz Nicholls - was "a tremendous" costume designer who was immensely popular with those she worked with.

Alan J Bell, the producer of Summer Wine, said: "I worked with Liz for several years. She was a dedicated professional and was not frightened to stand up for what she believed. "I can well understand her doing what she did but I - and I am sure all who worked with her - will be very sad at her death. We had disagreements at times, as all artistic people do, but we all loved her." Mrs Sherlock was sitting in a cafe at Euston station with her husband, Peter, on Monday morning when her bag was snatched.

She chased a man and woman to a car and clung to the bonnet as the thieves drove away, before slipping under its wheels in front of horrified passers-by.

Mrs Sherlock worked for the BBC as a staff costume designer between 1983 and 1995, after which she went freelance.

Her credits, in addition to Last of the Summer Wine included Comic Relief, The Royal Variety Performance, the Ben Elton Show, Rolf's Amazing World of Animals and Tomorrow's World.

Her husband yesterday said she had acted instinctively when she gave chase to the muggers, out of a "sense of right and wrong".

Describing his wife as a "5ft 2in bundle of energy" he made a heart-rending appeal for witnesses to the tragedy.

Mr Sherlock, a 48-year-old computer programmer, said in a statement: "What Liz did surprised none of her friends or family.

"It was a typical, instinctive response of someone who believed in a sense of right and wrong."