Eamonn Andrews
| Eamonn Andrews CBE |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
19 December 1922 Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 5 November 1987 (aged 64) London, England |
| Cause of death | Heart failure |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Television and radio presenter |
| Spouse(s) | Gráinne Bourke (m. 1951–1987; his death) |
| Children | 3 adopted children |
| Relatives | Noel Andrews (brother) |
Eamonn Andrews, C.B.E. (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in Great Britain from the 1950's-1980's. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ Authority), which oversaw the introduction of a state television service to the Republic of Ireland.
Andrews was born in Synge Street, Dublin, and educated at Synge Street CBS. He began his career as a clerk in an insurance office. He was a keen amateur boxer and won the Irish junior middleweight title in 1944.
In 1946 he became a full-time freelance sports commentator, working for Radio Éireann, Ireland's state broadcaster. In 1950, he began presenting programmes for the BBC, being particularly well known for boxing commentaries, and soon became one of television's most popular presenters. The following year, the game show What's My Line? began and Andrews was the host.
Throughout the 1950s, he commentated on the major British heavyweight fights on the BBC Light Programme, with inter-round summaries by W. Barrington Dalby. On 20 January 1956, he reached No 18 in the UK Singles Chart with a "spoken narrative" recording named "The Shifting Whispering Sands (Parts 1 & 2)", which was produced by George Martin with musical backing by the Ron Goodwin Orchestra, released by Parlophone as catalogue number R 4106, a double-sided 78rpm record. The song later reappeared on Kenny Everett's compilation album The World's Worst Record Show, which was released in June 1978.
Between 1955 and 1964, he presented the long-running Sports Report on BBC's Light Programme (now Radio 2). In 1965, he left the BBC to join the ITV contractor ABC, where he pioneered the talk show format in the UK. He hosted a chat show on ITV, The Eamonn Andrews Show for five years. He was known for coming up with off-the-cuff linkings that did not work – such as: "Speaking of cheese sandwiches, have you come far?" This was parodied by the character Seamus Android on Round the Horne in the 1960s, performed by Bill Pertwee. In the 1960s he presented Thames Television's Today news magazine programme.
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