Review of the Year 2017: September - Sheffield comedy legend dies suddenly and otters make a return to River Don

The aim of The Star campaign was to highlight the wonderful work being done by Sheffield NSPCC and its safeguarding partners, on raising awareness of child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation, and the many preventative and proactive services they currently have operating throughout the city. It’s Not Okay committed to raising £30,000 throughout 2017, to enable the charity to present a specially developed play and accompanying workshop to every year seven pupil in every Sheffield secondary school, before March next year.

September also saw the sudden death of the late, the great, comedian Bobby Knutt, who died after suffering a heart attack while holidaying in the south of France. The South Yorkshire actor was considered one of the last great old-school comedians, and was well known for roles in Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Heartbeat and Last of the Summer Wine, as well as for playing Eddie Dawson on hit ITV show Benidorm. He was also a regular in panto across the region at this time of year.

Born in Sheffield in 1945, Bobby attended Abbeydale Grammar School before embarking on a successful showbiz career.

Also this month, Sheffield’s River Don, once branded the most polluted river in Europe, was found to have otters thriving in it, after experts using cameras triggered by heat and movement managed to capture images of the otters at numerous locations along the river.

The team spent 18 months examining the river and confirmed that the mammals’ return to the waterway was proof that conditions had improved.