Bob Monkhouse "back from dead" in cancer advert

LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) Comedian Bob Monkhouse came back from the dead on Tuesday in a television ad - with the help of computer wizardry - to promote a campaign fighting prostate cancer, the disease that killed him.

Ad-makers blended archive footage of Monkhouse with shots of a body-double in a graveyard for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation's ''Give a few Bob'' campaign (www.giveafewbob.org).

The script, spoken by a sound-alike, warns in typical Monkhouse one-liner style: ''What killed me kills one man per hour in Britain. That's even more than my wife's cooking.

''Let's face it - as a comedian, I died many deaths.

Prostate cancer, I don't recommend.'' Monkhouse's widow Jackie said it was a great honour for her husband, who died in 2003 aged 75, to feature in the ad, which coincides with Male Cancer Awareness Month.

''Bob would love this ad,'' she told The Sun. ''It's funny but has a serious message about the threat of prostate cancer.'' Meanwhile, 24 men will ''lie prostrate'' in London's rush hour to show how many die of the disease each day in Britain.

The campaign aims to raise awareness and fund research into testicular and prostate cancer.

The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation says the disease is killing one man every hour in Britain. But even though it is now almost as common as breast cancer, it gets just a fraction of the research funding.

REUTERS RKM1746