Nicholas Parsons

In a sketch on The Benny Hill Show (1969), the vampire Dracula is driven off from his intended victim not with a crucifix but by a photograph of Parsons smiling being waved at him.

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As a child Parsons had a stammer, which he managed to bring under control as he grew up, and dyslexia slowed his learning. He also suffered from migraines but was nonetheless successful at school.

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He was a member of the entertainment charity The Grand Order of Water Rats.

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He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2004 Queen's New Year Honours for services to drama and broadcasting.

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He was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 Queen's New Year Honours, particularly for charitable services to children's charities.

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Parsons began his career while training as an engineering apprentice; he was discovered by the Canadian impresario Carroll Levis and appeared on his radio programme as an impressionist. He also gained valuable early experience in amateur concert parties.

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In the late 1960s he created and presented a satirical programme called Listen to This Space on BBC Radio 4; it was highly avant-garde by the standards of the time, and in 1967 he won the Radio Personality of the Year Award for his work on it.

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After leaving school, his family contacted relatives in Scotland, who arranged a job for him in Clydebank near Glasgow, where he worked for five years as an engineering apprentice at the marine pump manufacturer Drysdales. While there he also studied engineering for two six-month terms at the University of Glasgow. He did not graduate, but he completed his apprenticeship and gained sufficient qualifications to become a mechanical engineer.

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He held the Guinness World Record for the longest after-dinner speech (11 hours) until the former record holder, Gyles Brandreth, took it back.

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Parsons was the host of the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game Just a Minute from its first broadcast on 22 December 1967. Its final episodes aired in 2019.

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In the early 1990s he hosted a short-lived panel game called Laughlines, broadcast on Sky TV's rival BSB's Galaxy entertainment channel. This was followed by an appearance as Reverend Green in the fourth and final series of the UK TV series Cluedo.

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His father was a general practitioner (doctor) and is said to have delivered Margaret Thatcher.

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After being educated at Colet Court and St Paul's School in London, Parsons's first career plan was to be an actor. However, his family believed an engineering career would be better, since in his youth he had repaired his grandfather's clocks and was creative with his hands.

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He hosted Sale of the Century throughout its first incarnation, from 1971 to 1983. During his tenure the audience reached more than 21 million viewers, a record for an ITV quiz show.

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Parsons was born left-handed but was made to write with his right hand.

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During the Second World War he was offered a post in the Merchant Navy, but did not join the service because of his health.

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At the end of the Second World War Parsons became a full-time professional actor. He made his West End debut in 1945 at the Aldwych Theatre in The Hasty Heart in the role of Kiwi, and starred in a tour of Arsenic and Old Lace that lasted more than a year.

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At school, Nicholas Parsons was best friends with John Treacher, who would go on to become Commander-in-Chief Fleet.

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In the 1950s, Parsons provided the non-singing voice of Tex Tucker in the children's TV puppet series Four Feather Falls, landing the job on the recommendation of his then wife, actress and voice artist Denise Bryer, who appeared in the series.

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From 2001 onwards, Parsons presented his comedy cabaret show The Happy Hour every year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in the Cabaret Bar at the Pleasance.

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In 1978, Parsons was the subject of This Is Your Life, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

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In the 1960s, Parsons became known to TV audiences as the straight man to comedian Arthur Haynes. They had a successful season at the London Palladium in 1963 and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in America in 1966. That same year, at Haynes's request, the partnership ended after ten years, allowing Parsons to return to the stage before he became a regular on The Benny Hill Show from 1968 to 1971.

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He lived near Burford, Oxfordshire, England. In his later years he lived in Buckinghamshire.

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His father was a general practitioner whose patients included Margaret Thatcher's family; claims that he delivered her are unproven.

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At school, Parsons's nickname was "Shirley", because of Shirley Temple's then-burgeoning talent.

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In 1952 he became a resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, where he regularly performed stand-up comedy nights to packed houses.

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In 1990, Parsons appeared in the original London cast of Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods at the Phoenix Theatre.

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Parsons was the longest-serving intermittent broadcaster on BBC radio. Sir David Attenborough is currently the longest-serving intermittent broadcaster on BBC television and radio.

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A memorial service for him was held at St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden on 7 April 2022.

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His first television appearance came on Carroll Levis's discovery show, where he performed impressions of figures such as James Stewart and Charles Boyer.

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He attended the memorial service held at St Paul's, Covent Garden, for the actor and comedian Jon Pertwee.

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