80s singing star Renato dies, aged 69

80s singing star Renato dies, aged 69
80s singing star Renato dies, aged 69 (Image credit: PA)

The male half of 1980s singing duo Renee And Renato has died at the age of 69. Renato Pagliari, who reached No 1 in 1982 with the ballad Save Your Love, died in a West Midlands hospital after having surgery for a brain tumour. The former Italian waiter also provided the voice for the popular Walls ice-cream TV advert, Just One Cornetto. Together with Renee - real name Hilary Lester - he spent four weeks at No 1 over Christmas 1982 with Save Your Love. His son Remo, 33, told the Birmingham Mail: "My dad was just one of those people that everybody loved. "He had two great passions, his family and performing. He was a born performer and a devoted family man. He lived for his grandchildren and he looked after all of us. "Even in the hospital he was singing to the other patients in the ward. He was happiest when he was performing and when the grandchildren were around him." Pagliari was born in Rome, but settled in the West Midlands as a young man. He entered the TV talent show New Faces in 1975 and his tenor voice caught the attention of songwriter Johnny Edward, who had written Save Your Love.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.