COMEDIAN Kevin Bridges is mourning the death of his dad.
Andy Bridges passed away on Thursday, aged 75, with his wife Patricia and the rest of his family by his side.
A family friend said Andy had been battling poor health in recent months.
The source told the Scottish Sun: “Patricia, who was his wife for 47 years, was by his side along with his sons John and Kevin as well as Kevin’s wife and his grandson Liam.
“Andy was Kevin’s mentor and took him to his first ever gig when he was a teenager. He was still bouncing new material off him in recent weeks.
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“Andy was absolutely hilarious and that’s where Kevin got his comedy skills from.
“He was without question the biggest influence on Kevin’s career and drove him to pub gigs all over the UK in the early days. They were a team.”
Andy regularly featured in Kevin’s stand up routines and he had the audience on the Graham Norton show in stitches with a hilarious story about Andy missing the Orient Express.
He told Norton: “My dad's always had a thing for trains and always wanted to go on the Orient Express.
“So for their anniversary I got them the trip and my dad is the only guy to have missed the train.
“He got off at Innsbruck station to send me a text and he was used to me telling him the signal is bad on trains so he presumed you can’t send a text from a train.
“So he gets off before the train is due to depart and sends me this long text about how they had been wined and dined and he was gazing at the Tyrolean mountains - he had even done the spell-check.
“And I’m reading this text and filling up because they’ve really had a good time and then the text goes 's***e, the train has just left, can you call me son?'”
After frantically explaining to station staff what had happened, Andy got in a taxi and managed to catch up with the train at the next stop - and was given a standing ovation when he got back on board.
In 2021 Kevin, 36, shared a nostalgic picture of him and his dad outside The Stand comedy club in Glasgow - 17-years after ‘Big Andy’ took him there for his first open mic spot.
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The source added: “He had a tremendous sense of humour and was one of a kind. The family will miss him dearly.”
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