TV Badger “Badger” was found dead yesterday in a hedgerow outside his home in Cheltenham. It is believed he was murdered.

The gregarious children’s entertainer was discovered by a man walking his dog in the early hours. He had sustained severe head injuries. Police suspect he may have been the first high-profile victim of the badger cull, given the green light by the government last week.

Badger’s neighbour Janice Fetlock said last night “It’s a huge shock. We hadn’t heard from him for a couple of days which is unusual, as he usually creates a great deal of noise and commotion. If I’m honest it was nice to get some peace. But none of us expected this.”

Loved by audiences nationwide for his performances on hit BBC show “Bodger and Badger”, he had in recent years retreated from public life as he struggled with health problems.

In a recent interview with Mark Lawson on Radio 4’s Front Row, Badger expressed regret that his insistence on following a diet consisting entirely of mashed potato had “put strain on relationships and alienated friends and colleagues.”

Devastated showbiz partner Simon Bodger paid tribute to him last night, saying: “He was a badger of enormous integrity.

He continued: “I look now at my naked left hand and I can see him still, lunging wildly at mashed potato with a blank look on his face. Chucking mashed potato around the room. Slinging it in my face, in my hair. Getting it all over the place, mashed potato, every day. Absolutely pints of the stuff.

“I’ll remember the good times, the laughs and the scrapes.

“But mostly I’ll remember how he wouldn’t stop eating and slopping about mashed potato all the time even when he just had to stop eating mashed potato for fifteen minutes while we fixed a boiler or something.

“It was actually really irritating”

Badger is survived by his wife Claudette, and two children Digby and Chantelle.