Monday, August 31, 2015

Danny Greenstone

Radio and tv producer Danny Greenstone has died, after a heart attack. Danny joined the BBC in 1969, straight from Beal Grammar School for Boys, as a filing clerk in the newspaper cuttings operation known as "News Information", based just behind Broadcasting House in Duchess Street.

By 1973, he'd made it to Radio Light Entertainment. In 1977 he worked with John Lloyd on what became The News Quiz, though Danny wanted to call it "Keep Taking The Tabloids". Danny's other radio creations included Wit's End, Medium Dry Sherrin, Beadle's Nightcap and The Law Game, for Radio 2, and Old Took's Almanac, which went out on World Service and Radio 2.

Thence to London Weekend Television, where he worked on Surprise Suprise, Game For A Laugh and Child's Play. He was part of the team that brought the UK’s first series of Pop Idol to your screens, and was also involved in the creation of Ant & Dec's PokerFace.

In 2008, he went the other side of the mike, for a weekly show on BBC Three Counties. He was about to direct a West End stage version of The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town, written by Spike Milligan and Ronnie Barker, due to open in October.

Danny, standing, with Margaret Thatcher in the cubicle
for a recording of Old Took's Almanac

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