Disgraced The Thick of It star Chris Langham dies at 77

Langham's death follows a battle with pancreatic cancer, with the actor survived by his wife, Chrissie and their children, Emily and Harry.

The Thick of It star's career came to an abrupt end in 2005 after he was charged with 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child star, after images were discovered on his home computer.

The Bafta-winning actor rose to fame with his performance as Hugh Abbot in the hit satirical series The Thick of It, later being crowned comedy actor of the year at the 2005 British Comedy Awards.

Langham swiftly rose to become a household name after stepping into the role of the unlucky government minister in the first two series of the hit sitcom.

But his comedic achievements were later overshadowed by his arrest and subsequent conviction, after he was found to have downloaded pictures and videos of child abuse to his home computer.

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He had claimed to have accessed the images as research for his role as a “peeping tom” character named Pedro iin the series of Help, the series he co-wrote with fellow comedian Paul Whitehouse.

He claimed the script had forced hm to “dig a little deeper into the darker places," however, his defence was later undermined by Whitehouse, who told the court the character was never intended to be a paedophile.

He was ultimately acquitted on further charges - namely having sex with an under-age girl, insisting she had been 18.

Langham was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years following his conviction in 2007, and found himself subject to a five-year sexual offenders' prevention order.

His sentence was later reduced to six months on appeal by judge Dame Heather Steel.

After his release from prison, the disgraced actor was quoted as saying: “My life has been ruined, but my conscience is clear."