Gilbert Harding
| Gilbert Harding | |
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by John Gay, 1949 (copyright National Portrait Gallery)
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| Born |
Gilbert Charles Harding 5 June 1907 Hereford, England |
| Died | 16 November 1960 (aged 53) Marylebone, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Queens' College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Journalist and radio and television personality |
| Known for | |
Gilbert Charles Harding (5 June 1907 – 16 November 1960) was an English journalist and radio and television personality. His many careers included schoolmaster, journalist, policeman, disc-jockey, actor, interviewer and television presenter. He also appeared in several films, sometimes in character parts but usually as himself. Harding had a sizeable role alongside John Mills in the 1952 film The Gentle Gunman and narrated the introduction to the film Pacific Destiny, 1956. He also made a couple of comedy records in the 1950s.
His father died aged 30 following an appendicitis operation and so his mother placed him into the care of the Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton. Harding's education continued at Queens' College, Cambridge, after which he took jobs teaching English in Canada and France. He returned to Britain and worked as a policeman in Bradford, before taking a position as The Times correspondent in Cyprus. In 1936 he again returned to Britain and began a long-term career with the BBC.
He was a regular on BBC Radio's Twenty Questions. and was voted Personality of the Year in the National Radio Awards of 1953-4. Harding regularly appeared on the BBC television panel game What's My Line? as a panellist, having been the presenter of the very first episode in 1951.
Harding was notorious for his irascibility and was at one time characterised in the tabloid press as "the rudest man in Britain". His fame sprang from an inability to suffer fools gladly, and many 1950s TV viewers watched What's My Line? less for the quiz elements than for the chance of a live Harding outburst. An incident on an early broadcast started this trend when Harding became annoyed with a rather self-satisfied contestant. He broke the genteel civility of 1950s BBC Television by telling the contestant that he was getting bored with him. The tabloids lapped this up and the show became compulsive viewing.
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