Christopher Trace

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Christopher Leonard Trace (21 March 1933 – 5 September 1992) was an English

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a " television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garne ...

, notable for his nine years as an original presenter of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

children's programme ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Te ...

''.

Early life and career

Trace was the youngest of three children born to Edith (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Morley) and Lawrence Archibald Trace. His two older siblings were Ann and David Morley Trace. Trace was educated at

Cranleigh School Cranleigh School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. History It was opened on 29 September 1865 as a boys' school 'to provide a sound and plain education, on the principles o ...

, a boarding

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British En ...

in the town of

Cranleigh Cranleigh is a village and civil parish, about southeast of Guildford in Surrey, England. It lies on a minor road east of the A281, which links Guildford with Horsham. It is in the north-west corner of the Weald, a large remnant forest, the m ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

, which he left early. After working as a farm labourer, he joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

and trained at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town o ...

. Trace received a commission in the

Royal Regiment of Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

of the British Army in 1953. He was promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

in February 1955, but resigned his commission in September 1956. Trace then had a relatively undistinguished acting career. In 1959, he played a detective, in 'Wrong Number', made at

Merton Park Studios Merton Park Studios, opened in 1929, was a British film production studio located at Long Lodge, 269 Kingston Road in Merton Park, South London. In the 1940s, it was owned by Piprodia Entertainment, Nikhanj Films and Film Producers Guild. Peter Mo ...

; and notably,

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten ...

's body double in '' Ben-Hur'' (1959).

Broadcaster

At the age of 25, Trace was the first male presenter of ''

'' from its first programme, broadcast on 16 October 1958, and stayed with the programme until 24 July 1967. According to the BBC, he gained the job as presenter because he bonded with producer

John Hunter Blair John Hunter Blair (4 August 1903 – 31 December 1964) was a British television producer. He was the creator of ''Blue Peter'', and was its producer from 1958 to 1961. Asked by Owen Read, head of BBC children's television, to devise a programme fo ...

over their shared love of model railways. During his time hosting ''Blue Peter'', he was also a regular presenter on the BBC Schools programme ''Signpost'' from 1961 to 1965. By 1967, the ''Blue Peter'' production team were beginning to find Trace hard to deal with and were looking to replace him on the show, particularly when his wife divorced him for sleeping with another woman during a 1965 ''Blue Peter'' summer expedition to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. The couple had two children. Trace often threatened to resign and once the production team were happy that viewers had accepted

John Noakes John Noakes (born John Wallace Bottomley; 6 March 1934 – 28 May 2017) was an English television presenter and former actor. He co-presented the BBC children's magazine programme ''Blue Peter'' in the 1960s and 1970s and was the show's longes ...

as a member of the team, Trace's next resignation was accepted. He became a writer and production manager for a film company named Spectator which failed after two years, losing him his life savings. He was declared bankrupt in 1973, then returned to the

...
, first on local television in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

and then on the network TV programme '' Nationwide''. In the 1970s, he worked as a presenter on

BBC East BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, northern Buckinghamshire, and the majority of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It is headquartered in The Forum, Norwich since 2003. It wa ...

's daily morning radio programme '' Roundabout East Anglia'', a regional opt-out from the ''Today'' programme on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

. He also appeared on local television as a presenter on BBC's early evening news programme '' Look East''.

Later life

By the mid-1970s, he had retired from the media, and briefly worked behind the bar of a pub near

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

before becoming general manager of an engineering factory, where he lost two toes in an accident. On ''Blue Peters 20th anniversary in 1978 he appeared on the show and the factory shut for the day so that the workforce could watch his appearance. On the show, without warning anyone in advance, he announced that he wanted to give an Outstanding Endeavour Award. The award became an annual ''Blue Peter'' event. In the 1980s he worked in the press office of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (

SSAFA SSAFA – the Armed Forces charity, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, is a UK charity that provides lifelong support to serving men and women and veterans from the British Armed Forces and their families or dependents. Anyone ...

). In the 1990s, he briefly returned to the BBC to guest on and later host the nostalgia series ''Are You Sitting Comfortably?'' on Radio 2.

Death

Trace died in 1992 from cancer of the

oesophagus The esophagus ( American English) or oesophagus (British English; both ), non-technically known also as the food pipe or gullet, is an organ in vertebrates through which food passes, aided by peristaltic contractions, from the pharynx to ...

while living in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London and the ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Charing Cross, the town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and Sout ...

Valerie Singleton Valerie Singleton (born 9 April 1937) is an English television and radio presenter best known as a regular presenter of the popular children's series ''Blue Peter'' from 1962 to 1972. She also presented the BBC Radio 4 '' PM'' programme for t ...

and

Biddy Baxter Joan Maureen "Biddy" Baxter, MBE (born 25 May 1933) is a British television producer, best known for editing the long-running BBC TV children's magazine show ''Blue Peter'' from 1965 to 1988. As editor of the programme, Baxter devised much of t ...

visited Trace in hospital just days before his death.

Quotations

The ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' credits Trace with coining two phrases that have become prominent in British popular culture: the line "

And now for something completely different ''And Now for Something Completely Different'' is a 1971 British sketch comedy film based on the television comedy series ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' featuring sketches from the show's first two series. The title was taken from a catchphrase ...

", later taken up by, and usually attributed to,

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...

, and "Here's one I made earlier", since adopted by nearly all subsequent presenters on ''Blue Peter''.

References

Sources

* Alistair McGown, "Trace, Christopher Leonard (1933–1992)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online edition, Oxford University Press, Oct 2005; online edn, May 200
accessed 10 June 2006

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trace, Christopher Blue Peter presenters English television presenters People from the Borough of Waverley Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst People educated at Cranleigh School 1933 births 1992 deaths Deaths from esophageal cancer