Presenter who hosted quiz show for 25 years dies at his home after a short illness
Bamber Gascoigne was the originator of catchphrases such as ‘your starter for 10’. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
The Guardian-Harriet Sherwood
Bamber Gascoigne, the scion of an aristocratic and military family who found fame as quizmaster of University Challenge and hosted the show for 25 years, has died at the age of 87.
Gascoigne, the originator of catchphrases such as “your starter for 10”, died at home in Richmond, south-west London after a short illness.
He was the first host of University Challenge when the cerebral quiz show began airing in 1962, and remained in the quizmaster’s chair for 913 episodes until 1987.
Gascoigne was credited with the show’s unexpected success. Although the questions were often far beyond the knowledge of most viewers, his affable manner appealed to audiences, who adopted his hallmark phrases into everyday discourse.
Seven years after the show, broadcast on ITV, ended its run, it was revived by the BBC with Jeremy Paxman in the chair.
Gascoigne came from a long line of top brass military men and landowners. His great-grandfathers included a marquess and a baron, and one uncle was a prime minister of Northern Ireland in the 1960s. His father, Derek Ernest Frederick Orby Gascoigne, was a lieutenant-colonel.
Bamber Gascoigne was a pupil at Eton and, after national service, studied English Literature at Cambridge. He became a theatre critic for the Observer and the Spectator before being chosen to host University Challenge.
He also produced television documentaries, wrote novels and was a trustee of arts organisations including the National and Tate galleries, at the Royal Opera House and the National Trust. He was appointed a CBE in 2018.
In 2014, Gascoigne unexpectedly inherited West Horsley Place, – a 15th-century stately home in Surrey once owned by Henry VIII – via his aunt, the Duchess of Roxburgh.
Instead of selling the crumbing 50-room house, Gascoigne and his wife took on its £10m renovation, financed by selling much of its contents, and turned it into an arts centre. A 750-seat opera house was built in the grounds to house Grange Park Opera.
A statement from the opera said: “TV presenter and author Bamber Gascoigne has today (8 February 2022) died at his home in Richmond after a short illness.
“The 87-year-old – famous for being the original host of BBC’s University Challenge – had been married to his wife Christina, a potter, for 55 years.”