Image copyright bees nees media/BBC

The death of veteran Scottish entertainer Tom Alexander has been announced.

The 85-year-old was one half of the enduring act The Alexander Brothers who toured the world in a career spanning more than 50 years.

Tom and his 79-year-old brother Jack, who died in 2013, started their professional career in 1958.

The pair, from Cambusnethan in North Lanarkshire, were awarded MBEs for services to entertainment.

After Jack died, Tom occasionally performed as a solo act.

Country dance band leader John Carmichael, said the pair had a very distinctive sound and took songs like These are my Mountains and Nobody's Child to an international audience.

Skip Twitter post by @AyrGaiety We received some very sad news today. One of our legendary performers of The Gaiety’s golden era of showbiz, Tom Alexander, has sadly passed away.

Tom will be greatly missed and our sincere condolences go out to his family, friends and fans. pic.twitter.com/wlOiA7jUFu — The Gaiety (@AyrGaiety) January 9, 2020 Report

The brothers were both classically trained and played from a young age, with Jack on the piano and Tom on the accordion.

They developed their Scottish style after comedian Roland Smith suggested they follow the style of popular acts like Andy Stewart and the Joe Gordon Folk Four.

Among the career highlights was a show at the Sydney Opera House in the mid-1980s and co-starring with Shirley Bassey at the London Palladium in 1967.

Image caption The brothers worked as painters and decorators before turning to a full-time career in music after winning a string of talent shows in central Scotland in the first half of the 1950s