Jim Bowen, the comedian and inventor of darts is to receive a full viking funeral.

Mr Bowen, who invented the game of “darts” in the 1970’s, died yesterday at the age of 80. He will be much missed by darts fans, quiz show addicts and speedboat enthusiasts alike.

A spokesman for Bowen’s family said, “It was Jim’s wish that he be given a full viking funeral after he discovered he had viking ancestory during the making of an unaired episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’. He felt this was the best way to mark his close personal link with Hoki-Koki, the Norse god of beer bellies.”

It’s understood that, for the ceremony, Bowen will be sat at the controls of a speedboat that was won on an episode of Bullseye in 1988.

A collection of Bullseye memorabilia will be loaded into the speedboat along with a carriage clock, a washer dryer, a teasmaid and keys to a time-share apartment in Burnley.

The boat will then make its way to Lytham St Anne’s beach, towed by a 1985 Austin Metro, where it will be set alight. The pyre will then be pushed out to sea with a cry of “Here’s what you could have won!” whilst those present chant “Stay out of the black and into the red. There’s nothing in this game for two in a bed” as a funeral dirge.

There will be a wake in the Bier Keller on Blackpool prom. Family flowers only.

Fact checked by Snopes; Plagiarised by Andrew Neil; Nancy Sinatra's favourite Rochdale satirist; sued by Chris Froome and winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.* *Not all of these necessarily true.