Denis Norden

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Denis Norden CBE
Born	Denis Moss Cohen (1922-02-06)6 February 1922 Hackney, London, England
Died	19 September 2018(2018-09-19) (aged 96) Hampstead, London, England
Occupations	Radio & television writer Television presenter Radio personality
Years active	1941–2006
Employer	ITV
Spouse	Avril Rosen ​ ​ (m. 1943; died 2018)​
Children	2
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Second World War

Denis Mostyn Norden

Early life and career

Norden was born as Denis Moss Cohen

Norden was also later well known to television audiences for his ITV shows: Looks Familiar, It'll Be Alright on the Night and Laughter File. It'll Be Alright on the Night, which he hosted from 1977 until 2006, consisted of out-takes from film and television linked by comments. 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: with the increasing private ownership of domestic camcorders, clips were spun off into the long-running You've Been Framed! (1990–2022). Laughter File, first broadcast in 1991, showed spoof adverts, real foreign adverts, practical jokes, live television mistakes and other various "oddities", which Norden said, "tickled our fancies, just when they needed tickling". These items included virtually everything discovered during research for material suitable for It'll be Alright on the Night that was not eligible for that show.^[5][6]

Retirement and legacy

Norden announced his retirement from his two long-running ITV shows It'll Be Alright on the Night and Laughter File on 21 April 2006. He was then 84 years old and suffering from macular degeneration, which made it difficult for him to read an autocue. 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 gave Norden a standing ovation, which was followed by him then placing his trademark clipboard on his desk, which the camera zoomed in on to as the credits ended. He has since been succeeded on It'll Be Alright on the Night by Griff Rhys Jones and later by David Walliams.

For years, Norden was resistant to producing an autobiography, saying that much of his life and career had already been well covered by Frank Muir's A Kentish Lad and that a book called The Bits Frank Left Out would be too brief. Nevertheless, in October 2008, a book containing a sequence of autobiographical sketches was published entitled Clips from a Life. He continued to make occasional television and radio appearances. He contributed to a BBC Four season about the history of satire, and he appeared as a guest on The One Show on 2 October 2008 to talk about his life and career as well as his book. He was interviewed in a one-off documentary called Der Sommer 1939 ("The Summer of 1939"), which was broadcast on 12 August 2009 on the Franco-German television station Arte. Norden also appeared as part of a contribution of show business friends, writers and performers in the BBC documentary The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse in January 2011.^[7][8]

Personal life and death

Norden and his wife Avril, whom he married in 1943, had a son, Nick, an architect, and a daughter, Maggie, a radio personality and lecturer at the

Norden died at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London on 19 September 2018, aged 96, less than three months after the death of his wife.^{[2][6][9][10]}

Bibliography

• Denis Norden (6 October 2008), Clips from a Life, Fourth Estate,
  ISBN 978-0-00-727795-7
  .

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Denis Norden.

• Denis Norden at
  IMDb
  .
• Denis Norden at the BFI's Screenonline.
• Denis Norden at British Comedy Guide.