Denis Norden
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Denis Mostyn Norden (born February 6, 1922 in Hackney, London) is an English comedy writer and television presenter.
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[edit] ITV shows
Norden is nowadays best known to television audiences for his two occasional ITV shows.
- It'll be Alright on the Night, which consists of out-takes from film and television linked by witty comments and has run since 1977. Much of the material from the early episodes was used on Dick Clark's "Bloopers" specials which aired on NBC a few years later. A couple of mid-1980s editions featured several home video clips; these were soon dropped as such material was spun-off into the long-running You've Been Framed (1990-) as camcorders become more commonly owned.
- Denis Norden's Laughter File, which showcases spoof adverts, real foreign adverts, practical jokes, live television mistakes, and other various items, which, as he once put it, "tickled our fancies, just when they needed tickling". These items are virtually everything that is discovered when researching material for Alright on the Night that aren't out-takes, and thus cannot be shown on that show. They are collectively known as 'oddities'. This show has been running since 1991.
Aside from this success, he has had a long and distinguished career as a scriptwriter and radio and TV personality, frequently partnered by Frank Muir.
[edit] Early life & career
Educated at the City of London School with Kingsley Amis, Norden "was considered to have a fine academic brain" and was well regarded by his peers.
Upon leaving school he worked as a stagehand. He then managed a theatre at the age of 17 and organised variety shows. His writing career began in the RAF during World War II for troop shows, following which he wrote material for comedian Dick Bentley, before meeting Frank Muir, who wrote for Jimmy Edwards, in 1947.
Their first joint venture was the radio show, Take It From Here, which they scripted from 1948 to 1959. They went on to write many successful radio and television scripts, including Whacko (1956-60) and three series of Faces of Jim (1961-63), both as vehicles for Jimmy Edwards. In 1964, their writing partnership broke up, as Muir moved into management with the BBC. Over the next several years, Norden, who had long had a fascination with Hollywood, wrote the scripts for several films, including Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell and The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom. While no longer writing with Muir, they continued as something of a double act, and were regular participants in panel shows such as My Word! (1956-90) and My Music (1966-93), first on radio then TV. Norden also hosted an ITV nostalgia quiz, Looks Familiar.
[edit] Retirement & legacy
He and his wife Avril have a son, Nick, an architect, and a daughter, Maggie, a radio presenter and lecturer at the London College of Fashion.
He announced his retirement from his two ongoing ITV shows It'll be Alright on the Night and Denis Norden's Laughter File, on 21 April 2006.
A special show was recorded on 14 May 2006 as a 'farewell tour' to all his shows over the years, called All the Best from Denis Norden, which was shown on 2 January 2007. As the show's closing credits were shown, the studio audience arose to give Denis a standing ovation, and this was followed by Denis placing his trademark clipboard on his desk, which the camera then zoomed in on to as the credits ended.
[edit] James Bond connection
Norden also has a link to the James Bond movie series. In 1965, Norden wrote, narrated and starred in a short featurette jointly made by the Bond producers and The Ford Motor Company. The colour short, entitled "A Child's Guide To Blowing Up A Motor Car", went behind the scenes of an exploding car stunt being filmed for Thunderball. The story of the short is that Norden is taking a young relative on a day out to a movie set. He meets several stars and production team members, but not Sean Connery. Lost for many years, it is now available on the 'Ultimate Edition' DVD of Thunderball, as released in late 2006.
