Jonathan Routh

Jonathan Routh, born John Reginald Surdeval Routh, (1927–2008) co-starred in the British version of the television show Candid Camera (1960–67) and co-starred with Germaine Greer and Kenny Everett in a later attempt at a revival, Nice Time (1968). He published a number of humorous books, and also painted for many years.

Routh was born on 24 November 1927 in Gosport, Hampshire, the son of a British Army colonel, and spent much of his early childhood in Palestine. He was educated at Uppingham School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he read history.

Routh had two sons from his first marriage (to the film designer Nandi Heckroth, in 1948), had a relationship in 1969 with the wife of Paul Hamlyn, and then another with the oil heiress Olga Deterding. He died in Jamaica on 4 June 2008.

Following a success with a British version of Candid Microphone on Radio Luxembourg, Routh started a British version of its television successor Candid Camera around 1961 for ABC TV. Following a long dispute with the American lawyers of Allen Funt as to who held the rights to Candid Camera, Routh moved on to new fields, working with John Birt, later director general of the BBC, for Granada TV, along with Germaine Greer and Kenny Everett in Nice Time. He also worked in television advertising on spots such as J. Walter Thompson's for Smarties and Kellogg's Corn flakes, appearing also in some spots himself, for example Newcastle Brown Ale. The British version of Candid Camera returned along in 1974, starring Peter Dulay, Arthur Atkins and Sheila Bernette. In 1976, Routh returned to the pranks and the show was retitled Jonathan Routh & Candid Camera.

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