I first met my friend, of whose death I have just read, in 1999. In the seven years since, he has been a constant source of pleasure and comfort. At times even a privilege, to know. He has made me laugh and made me cry. Made me think and at times agonise over what he once called “questions for serious people”. He has unfailingly displayed a sense of apparently effortless style, with an ironic, sometimes acid, wit that delighted the mind and warmed the heart.

He was, truth be told, too idealistic for his own good. Impressively and convincingly devoted to the proposition that liberal values are needed more, not less, in the dangerous world of today. He never failed to stand up for such ideals. With a rare eloquence and rigour. He knew great success, fame, celebrity and wealth. However, most unusually, he did not let this change his fundamental values and beliefs. He remained true to those, with passion and conviction, to the very end.

One could not help but forgive him his occasional naiveté before the messy, cynical world around us. His heart, his head and his keen sense of justice and decency, remained in harmony. When he lost friends who moved away, they always remembered him with respect and warmth.

His work informed millions of people of things they needed to know but that no one else would tell them straight, with conviction and real passion. Possessed of more than a little justifiable arrogance, he occasionally came over as a bit flash or even a touch sentimental. But true sentiment and human insight were also his stock in trade – and he knew so well how to express them.

I will miss him although, as with all things, there is a time for leaving, a time for endings.

RIP - The West Wing 1999-2006