Frank Herbert Muir (5 February 1920 - 2 January 1998) was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. Events 1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France. Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and
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Birth and early life
Born and brought up in his grandmother's pub, The Derby Arms in Ramsgate,[1] Kent, he spent part of his childhood in the E10 district of London. Ramsgate is a seaside town on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent, England. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format The E (Eastern postcode area, also known as the London E postcode area, is the part of the London postal district covering much of east London, England In later years, whenever his dignified speech patterns caused listeners to assume that he had received a public-school education, Muir would demur: "I was educated in E10, not Eton. The term public school has two distinct (and virtually opposite meanings depending on the location of usage in the United States, Australia and Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. " In fact, he was educated at the Chatham House Grammar School, in Ramsgate, Kent, in South-East England, whose former pupils included Edward Heath, leader of the British Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975 and British Prime Minister from 1970-74. Chatham House Grammar School, often abbreviated to " Chatham House " is a grammar school in Ramsgate, Kent, England Ramsgate is a seaside town on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent, England. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format South East England is one of the nine official Regions of England. Sir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE (9 July 1916 &ndash 17 July 2005 often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom
Early career
Frank Muir joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and became a photographic technician, being posted to Iceland. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( While there he became involved with the forces radio station. Also while stationed in Iceland -- as he describes in his memoirs A Kentish Lad -- Muir suffered a spontaneous medical condition requiring the surgical removal of one testicle. Despite this loss, he later fathered two children.
Writing for radio
Upon his return to civilian life, he began to write scripts for Jimmy Edwards. Jimmy Edwards DFC ( 23 March 1920 &ndash 7 July 1988) was an English comedic script writer and comedy actor on both When Edwards teamed up with Dick Bentley on BBC Radio, Muir formed a partnership with Denis Norden, Bentley's writer, which was to last for most of his career. Charles Walter (Dick Bentley (14 May 1907 – 27 August 1995 born in Melbourne, Australia was a Comedian and Actor. BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927 Denis Mostyn Norden (born 6th February 1922 in Hackney, London) is an English Comedy writer and Television presenter. The vehicle created for the two men, Take It From Here, was written by Muir and Norden from 1948 until 1959; a last series in 1960 used other writers. Take It From Here (often referred to as TIFH, pronounced &mdash and sometimes humorously spelt &mdash "TIFE" was a British For TIFH, as it became known, they created "The Glums", a deliberately awful family, which was the show's most popular segment. Take It From Here (often referred to as TIFH, pronounced &mdash and sometimes humorously spelt &mdash "TIFE" was a British
Muir and Norden continued to write for Edwards when he began to work for BBC television with the school comedy series Whack-O, and in the anthology series Faces of Jim. Whack-O! was a British sitcom TV series starring Jimmy Edwards. Faces of Jim was a Black-and-white British Comedy television series starring Jimmy Edwards, June Whitfield With Norden, in 1962, he was responsible for the television adaptation of Henry Cecil's comic novel Brothers in Law, which starred Richard Briers in an early role. Henry Cecil Leon ( September 19 1902 – May 23 1976) who wrote under the pen-names Henry Cecil and Clifford Maxwell, was For the musical group of this name see The Brothers-in-Law. Brothers in Law was a 1955 comedy book by Henry Cecil, himself Richard David Briers, CBE (born 14 January 1934 is an English Actor whose career has encompassed the theatre television film and radio
The pair were also invited to appear on the newly formed humorous literary radio quiz My Word! A feature of the show was the final round, in which Muir and Norden would each tell a highly contrived and often convoluted story inspired by a well-known phrase provided by the quizmaster and ending in a terrible pun on the phrase in question. My Word! was a long-running Radio Panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service (1956-67 and Radio 4 (1967-90 A pun (or paronomasia) is a Phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding Words for humorous or Rhetorical
Frank Muir was also a contestant on the My Word spinoff My Music (as was Norden). My Music was a radio panel show which premiered on the BBC Home Service on January 3, 1967. As a television personality, Muir's unofficial trademark was a crisply knotted pink bowtie.
Later career
He was well known to television audiences as a team captain on the long-running BBC2 series Call My Bluff and did voice-overs for advertisements, notably Cadbury's Fruit & Nut chocolate ("Everyone's a Fruit and Nut case"), Batchelor's Savoury Rice ("Every grain will drive them insane!") and a coffee advert in which he coined the phrase "impending doom", and the Unigate milk Humphreys. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Call My Bluff was a long-running British Game show (adapted for BBC Television by Philip Hindin from a short-lived US The British milk company Unigate produced a series of TV advertisements in the 1970s featuring characters called the Humphreys. In 1954 he founded the amateur dramatic society "Thorpe Players". Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) He was a writer and presenter on many shows, including the 1960s satire programmes That Was The Week That Was and The Frost Report. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, was a Satirical Television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and The Frost Report was a Satirical Television show hosted by David Frost.
His pets, which prompted many an anecdote on My Word!, included Afghan Hounds and Burmese cats. The Afghan Hound is a very old Sighthound Dog breed. Distinguished by its thick fine The Burmese (ศุภลักษณ์ subh-bha-lak meaning fortunate beautiful and splendid appearance is a breed of domesticated Cats split into two The hounds were also the inspiration for a series of picture books about an accident-prone Afghan puppy called "What-a-Mess". What-a-Mess is a series of children's books written by British comedy writer Frank Muir and illustrated by Joseph Wright.
In the 1960s Muir was Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC and in 1969 joined London Weekend Television as Head of Entertainment. His magnum opus, The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, was published in 1990. In 1992, for Channel 4, he was host of TV Heaven, a season of evenings dedicated to television programmes from individual past years. Channel 4 is a public-service Television and Radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom centred around a television channel of the same name which began TV Heaven was a series of 13 theme nights shown on Channel 4 in 1992 celebrating the best of archive British television, with each focusing (with one exception
One of his significant writings was the 1976 The Frank Muir Book: An irreverent companion to social history, which is a fascinating collection of anecdotes and quotations collected as "Music", "Education", "Literature", "Theatre", "Art" and "Food and Drink". (In the United States, this book is titled "An Irreverent Social History of Almost Everything. ") For example, "Show me the man who has enjoyed his schooldays and I will show you a bully and a bore" Robert Morley. Robert Morley CBE ( May 26, 1908 &ndash June 3, 1992) was an Oscar -nominated English Actor who Or, "Education, n, That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. " Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, is a satirical book published in 1911
Private life
In 1949, he married the former Polly McIrvine, who died on October 27, 2004. Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 312 - Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " They had two children, Jamie (b 1952), a TV producer, and Sally (b 1954), who co-founded the Muir and Osborne knitwear design company, and is married to the journalist and author Geoffrey Wheatcroft. Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945 in London) is a British journalist and writer In 1997, Muir published a well-received autobiography, A Kentish Lad. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar To the consternation of many, BBC Radio refused to serialize it as a reading. [2]
Bibliography
- The What-A-Mess Children's Books
- The Frank Muir Book: An Irreverent Companion to Social History
- The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose
- The Walpole Orange
- A Kentish Lad (Autobiography)
Trivia
- Long time resident of the village of Thorpe, Surrey. An autobiography, from the Greek αὐτός autos "self" βίος bios "life" and γράφειν graphein "to write" Thorpe is a village in Surrey, England, located between Egham and Chertsey.
- Muir stood six feet four inches tall.
References
- ^ Shepherd Neame
- ^ Spectator review of A Kentish Lad by Jonathan Cecil
- ^ Biography and Bibliography detail taken from a copy of A Kentish Lad which was first published by Bantam Press (UK) in 1997, and published also in paperback format
External links
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by Alan Coren |
Rector of the University of St Andrews 1976 - 1979 |
Succeeded by Tim Brooke-Taylor |
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