Crouch End comedian Sean Hughes has died, his management company has confirmed.

Ham & High: Sean Hughes promoting his tour Ducks And Other Mistakes I've Made in 2010. Picture: ARCHANTSean Hughes promoting his tour Ducks And Other Mistakes I've Made in 2010. Picture: ARCHANT (Image: Archant)

The Irish stand up died at the age of 51 after telling fans a week ago he was in hospital.

Mr Hughes’s rise to fame began after he won the Perrier Comedy Award at the age of 24 with his show A One Night Stand with Sean Hughes.

In 1992 he had his own Channel 4 TV programme Sean’s Show and between 1996 and 2002 he was a team captain on BBC Two’s Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

In a 2010 interview with the Islington Gazette Mr Hughes described himself as a principled man, comparing himself to a jester allowed to say what was wrong with society.

He said: “I have never liked being young; it didn’t really suit me. But the one thing is [now] you don’t really care what people think about what you say, within reason. You just go, ‘Your opinion? It doesn’t really bother me’.

“It’s pretty much what, in Shakespeare’s time, they called the jesters. They were allowed to say what was wrong with society. And I know it sounds pompous, but that’s what it is, and it’s phenomenal. We’re the only ones who can. And people don’t even see it as an art form a lot of the time.

“Because I don’t want to be a performing monkey, I just want to go, ‘This is what I want to say, I hope you agree with it’. You don’t realise this power that we have. And if you go on stage and just speak truth, people will love it,” he said.

On Crouch End, where he lived for more than 20 years, he signalled an appreciation of the area’s “village feel” at the time saying he disliked multi-nationals “taking over stuff”.

“All we have now are hairdressers and chemists, and I just find that all a bit bizarre. I’m a community person.

“There’s a brilliant bike shop in Crouch End which has been there for years, and now the pub by the phone exchange has become a bike shop. You are going to put these guys out of business! Stuff like that really upsets me.

“I just hate when I see a local shop coming to bits,” he added.