Tim Gudgin

Tim Gudgin, the unseen voice of results on BBC Grandstand for nearly 50 years, has died aged 87.

After Hardy’s School, Dorchester, Bishop Wordsworth’s, Salisbury and Whitgift School in Croydon, he went straight to National Service.....and, on discharge in 1949, succesfully applied to be an announcer with the British Forces' Network in Hamburg, trained by Robin Boyle.

He joined the BBC's European Service in 1952, and worked on the Light Programme/Radio 2 for almost 40 years, hosting Music Box, Top of the Form, Midday Spin, Housewives' Choice, Round the Bend, Saturday Night at the Light, News Time, Swingalong, Out and About, Treble Chance, Melody Hour, Radio 2 Top Tunes, The Late Show and You and the Night and the Music.

Odder gigs included a role as "Chairman" in a tv commercial for Square Deal Surf, and narrating Bleep and Booster on Blue Peter in the the late 60s. Fellow R2 announcer Charles Nove says he wasn't always a good boy "I remember one occasion when they sent him a long memo about things he was not to do during You & The Night & The Music. So he audibly lit up one of his fine cigars, put on a little light jazz piano in the background and read out the memo on-air, with a few choice comments along the way !"