(1968). During the 1960s and 1970s, on BBC Radio 4 and on its predecessor the BBC Home Service, he was a regular panelist on Ian Messiter's Many a Slip. He starred alongside Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson and Jeremy Kemp in the musical film Darling Lili (1970) and also appeared in There's a Girl in My Soup. Also in 1970, he appeared in a rare dramatic role in the war film Too Late the Hero starring Michael Caine and Cliff Robertson. On 14 December 1970, he was involved in a fatal three-car crash in his Jaguar XJ on a notorious stretch of the A20, south of Farningham, Kent, known as Death Hill. Percival was in hospital for a month, he almost lost the sight of one eye and required 123 stitches. Following his recovery, he was charged with causing death by dangerous driving. In court he testified remembering the car drifting left and right, but his memory of the accident was vague. He was acquitted after evidence showed that a tyre on his car had probably deflated before the crash. Percival accepted liability for the accident and in a legal action that reached the Court of Appeal he paid a total of £35,781 in damages to his two passengers and to the widow and the two children of the driver who was killed (). Percival returned to film work in the Frankie Howerd films Up Pompeii (1971), Up the Chastity Belt (1971), and Up the Front (1972), sustaining a film career until 1978. Between 1972 and 1978 the Thames Television game show Whodunnit! was written by Percival and Jeremy Lloyd. Percival appeared on BBC Radio light entertainment programmes such as Just a Minute throughout the 1980s and was also the author of two books of verse, Well-Versed Cats and Well-Versed Dogs, both illustrated by Lalla Ward. Subsequently, he gained a reputation as a writer and later as an after-dinner speaker. Percival died on 6 January 2015, aged 81, after a long illness. His son Jamie said: "When he spoke about his showbiz life, he spoke fondly of his time on That Was the Week That Was, and he always loved Ned Sherrin, who discovered him performing at the Blue Angel Club". He was cremated at Putney Vale Cemetery on 20 January 2015. Filmography Film The Devil's Daffodil (1961) – Französischer Gendarme / French gendarme (uncredited) Raising the Wind (1961) – Harry