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John Clarke..

Renowned satirist, writer and actor John Clarke, died Sunday, aged 68..

New Zealand-born Clarke and comedy partner Bryan Dawe sent up Aussie politics in mock interviews on the ABC.s 7.30 Report.and before that on Nine.s A Current Affair.

Clarke created and starred in mockumentary series The Games. His screenwriting credits include Lonely Hearts with Paul Cox, the original screenplay Billy Connolly's.The Man Who Sued God, and mini-series Anzacs.

As an actor he appeared in features such as.Death of Brunswick opposite Sam Neill, and more recently in Matthew Saville.s A Month of Sundays and the ABC.s The Ex-pm..

He died of natural causes while on a hike in the Grampians National Park, Victoria. He is survived by his wife Helen, daughters Lorin and Lucia and grandchildren Claudia and Charles.

A statement from his family said: .John died doing one of the things he...

The BBC has denied allegations of plagiarism relating to its comedy Twenty Twelve. The series, which began on Monday, stars Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes as members of the organising team preparing for the Olympic Games. Australian writers John Clarke and Ross Stevenson have now told the Sydney Morning Herald that they believe the show is based on their series The Games, which ran in 1998 and 2000. The pair also pitched the format to the BBC with the help of Kath And Kim producer Rick McKenna. Clarke and Stevenson alleged that Twenty Twelve writer John Morton had been given DVDs of their series and suggested that the claims of plagiarism are "very sound". "We haven't seen Twenty Twelve so it would be unreasonable of us to make an accusation of copying, but it's pretty clear where they got the format," Clarke said. "It (more)...