Blockbusters' Bob Holness dies at 83

Popular television and radio presenter Bob Holness has died after many years of ill health. Bob will be best remembered as host of Central Television’s game show Blockbusters which aired for a decade on ITV.

 

Popular television and radio presenter Bob Holness has died after many years of ill health. Bob will be best remembered as host of Central Television’s game show Blockbusters which aired for a decade on ITV.

Born in South Africa the Holness family moved back to the UK not long after Bob’s birth. The family lived in Kent, which had been his father’s residence before emigrating.

After studying in England and a brief job in the printing industry Bob and his family returned to South Africa where he began his broadcasting career, first working as a radio presenter.

In 1956 he played the part of James Bond in a radio production of Moonraker, placing him as the second person to portray the character following American Barry Nelson who played Bond in a TV drama two years earlier.

While in South Africa he met his wife Mary, and the pair moved to Britain in 1961.

Bob continued with his radio career working for Radio Luxembourg and BBC Radio from 1964, later joining the newly launched Radio 1. He also worked for ITV’s North West production company, Granada, where he ventured into his first television game show, Take A Letter.

With Granada Television he also hosted Granada News and several regional documentaries.

In the mid-1970s he switched from BBC radio to London’s commercial broadcaster LBC where among other things he co-hosted the breakfast slot. While with LBC he won Independent Radio Personality of the Year twice. He remained with the broadcaster for ten years, before returning to BBC Radio where he remained until 1997.

In 1983 he returned to ITV to front Central Television’s latest game show, Blockbusters. Produced in Central’s Nottingham studios – and occasionally ATV Centre in Birmingham – the show ran for a decade and made Bob a whole new generation of fans. The show was aimed at a youth audience with students as the participants.

Blockbusters ran for a decade on ITV, before moving for a spell to Sky One, with Holness continuing as host. He also had a short spell hosting Raise The Roof for ITV, a short-lived primetime quiz show produced by Yorkshire Television in Leeds.

In 1996 the BBC revived their classic game show Call My Bluff, which saw Bob take over from Robert Robinson who had hosted the latter series’ – last airing in 1988. Holness remained with Bluff until 2002, with his last episodes airing in 2003. It was at this time his health began to deteriorate, when he suffered a stroke, having previously suffered mini strokes.

In 2003 he returned for a one-off broadcast to mark LBC’s 30th anniversary and in 2004 he made a guest appearance on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway to host a ‘special’ round of Blockbusters. He retired from the limelight in 2005.

Bob Holness, it was claimed, played saxophone on Gerry Rafferty’s 1978 song Baker Street. It was actually Crossroads Kings Oak theme tune composer Rafael Ravenscroft, not that Bob minded the myth and often played along with the joke.

It will be however Blockbusters that many will have memories of Bob. From the salute at the end of every episode, the ‘can I have a P please Bob?’, the out-takes on Alright on the Night and the hot spot.

Robert Wentworth John Holness 12th November 1928 – 6th January 2012