'Dad's life was always a fight' - how bold, brash Barry Dennis became the face of the betting ring

So much of TV these days is a lie, with attention-seekers preening for the cameras in the hope of landing a bit part in a reality television spin-off. It makes you wonder whether some of the great characters of our light entertainment past were the same, simply creating a persona for the benefit of the cameras.

Take Barry Dennis, for example, especially in his role as adversary to Morning Line co-star John McCririck, bickering, ranting, arguing the toss, whether by phone in the studio or toe to toe in the betting ring. Was it all a rabble-rousing pantomime or was it the real thing?

"You mean, was it a calculated image and he was really a nice, meek, mild man?" asks Patrick Middleton, son of the outspoken bookmaker formerly known as Barrie Dennis Middleton. "No, it wasn't."