Lionel Gamlin
Lionel James Gamlin (30 April 1903 – 16 October 1967)[1] was a British radio and newsreel announcer and presenter, and actor, who was known for his work for the BBC and British Movietone News between the 1930s and 1950s.
Life and career
He was born in
He provided the commentary in 1940 for both the
In the late 1940s and 1950s he worked on BBC radio, presenting and conducting interviews on In Town Tonight, presenting Top of the Form, and producing children's programmes. He became "a stalwart of light entertainment broadcasting",[3] was a castaway on Desert Island Discs in 1955,[5] and lived close to Broadcasting House.[3] He played little part in the growth of television broadcasting in the 1950s, although he did share interviewing duties with Eamonn Andrews on the film review programme Current Release.[6] In his later years he worked as an occasional actor on such programmes as Dixon of Dock Green and Adam Adamant Lives!,[1] and also as a valet.[3] His last film role was in The Whisperers.[1]
Gamlin was unmarried, and died in 1967 aged 64.
Posthumous allegations
This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. (November 2012) |
In 2012, reports in the media relating to the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal referred to Gamlin.[7] Author Andrew O'Hagan alleged in the London Review of Books that, during the 1950s, Gamlin used a secret venue in Fitzrovia where he and another senior member of staff at the BBC regularly had sex with young boys.[3][7]
References
- ^ a b c d Lionel Gamlin at IMDb. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ Commander A.B. Campbell, You have been listening to.............., pp. 169-170
- ^ a b c d e f O'Hagan, Andrew (27 October 2012). "Light Entertainment: Andrew O'Hagan writes about child abuse and the British public". London Review of Books. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ Adrian Room, Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins, p.180
- ^ BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs, Lionel Gamlin. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ Su Holmes, British TV and Film Culture in the 1950s: Coming to a TV Near You, p. 90
- ^ a b Cahalan, Paul; Owen, Jonathan (28 October 2012). "Bitter infighting sweeps the BBC". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2012.