During his career, West portrayed former British prime minister Winston Churchill three times, in From Churchill and the Generals (1979), The Last Bastion (1984) and Hiroshima (1995).

Other roles ranged from Cardinal Wolsey in the 1979 BBC adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, to Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 Cold War drama Breakthrough at Reykjavik, to a racist South African policeman in Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom the same year.

He took over as artistic director of London’s Old Vic theatre in 1980, but his short tenure was marked by a row about a prodction of Macbeth starring Peter O’Toole, which West publicly disowned after it was savaged by critics.

West was a regular and acclaimed performer of Shakespeare himself, portraying King Lear in 2002 and 2016.

In 2019, the actor played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, a recreation of three missing episodes of the BBC comedy Dad’s Army.

His final screen appearance is in Wednesday’s instalment of BBC One’s Doctors.

“Today’s Doctors episode is a moving reminder of his incredible talent, and it was an honour to have him join us,” the show said on social media. “We send heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.”