PETER Byrne, who has died aged 90, was a regular visitor to Bournemouth at the height of his fame as Jack Warner’s co-star in TV’s Dixon of Dock Green.

The future actor was born in East London and made his professional debut in 1944.

In Worthing in the 1950s, he met fellow repertory player Pamela Thomas, who would later become Bournemouth councillor and mayor Pamela Harris.

They both appeared in Reach for the Sky, the 1956 biopic of World War Two flying ace Douglas Bader, but in different scenes.

“He was ever such a nice chap – and some of them aren’t, you know,” she said.

“He was very charming.”

In 1955, he was cast in Dixon of Dock Green, the TV series spun off from the film The Blue Lamp, with Jack Warner as reliable bobby PC George Dixon.

His character was PC Andy Crawford, who became Dixon’s son-in-law and eventually rose to the rank of detective inspector. Mr Byrne was in every episode of the show until 1975, when he left a year before the series finished.

Despite his busy TV schedule, Mr Byrne remained active in the theatre, and was director of Bournemouth’s Palace Court Theatre from 1965-66.

He went into partnership with Paul Elliott, later known as Britain’s “king of panto”. They produced and directed a 12-week run of Lock Up Your Daughters by Bernard Miles at the Palace Court, with Craig Douglas, Bill Maynard and Poole’s Miss World winner Ann Sidney.

Plays brought him frequently to Dorset, where he performed such duties as compering Miss Bournemouth and helping at the teddy bear charity stall in the Lower Gardens.

In 1974, he befriended future Bournemouth councillor Nigel Hedges, who was working in the sports department of Beales and heard the star was looking for a squash partner.

“I asked him for a game and we were friends for 40 years,” Cllr Hedges said.

He remembers the actor as “an extra special guy” who was “huge fun” and “always dedicated to his family”.

Mr Byrne was appearing at Bournemouth’s Pier Theatre in May 1981, when his on-screen father-in-law Jack Warner died at the age of 85. The two had kept in contact, though they had not met for a couple of years.

He remembered Warner as a loyal and generous man with a common touch.

“We had a very close association and off the screen he was like the father I never knew,” he told the Echo.

On television, Mr Byrne appeared in an episode of Blake’s Seven, had a recurring role as a potential suitor for Nellie Boswell in Bread and appeared in two episodes of Holby City.

He was in declining health for some time and had been living at Denville Hall, the actors’ retirement home, where his fellow residents for a time included Lord Brian Rix and Lord Richard Attenborough.

He was divorced from Vera Dalgleish after 24 years of marriage. His second wife, Renee Goldschmidt, died in 2011.

He is survived by two stepchildren.