Bob was born in Vryheid, Natal in South Africa. The family moved to Kent when he was seven.
They returned to South Africa in the 1950s and he joined a repertory theatre in Durban.
In 1955, he took on his first radio presenting job and, a year later, he became the second actor to portray James Bond, in a radio production of Moonraker for the SABC’s Springbok Radio.
Bob moved to the UK in 1961 and made the transition to television, as a continuity announcer at Granada Television (1961 – 1964).
He hosted children’s game shows Take a Letter (1962) and Junior Criss Cross Quiz (July – December 1964) – credited as Robert Holness.
He was a relief host of Thames TV’s magazine programme Today (1968).
He later built up somewhat of a cult following amongst students, as the long-serving host of Central Television’s Blockbusters (ITV, 1983 – 1995) and Champion Blockbusters (Central Television, 1987).
In 1988, he featured in a celebrity special of Catchphrase and appeared again with his daughter, Carol, in a Christmas version of Family Catchphrase.
In 1995, he hosted Yorkshire TV’s big-budget game show flop Raise the Roof and was chairman of a revived Call My Bluff (BBC, 1996 – 2003).
Bob appeared on one edition of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (2004), where he presented the last round of Ant and Dec’s Blockbusters, with Ant as a contestant.
He also had an occasional acting career in television shows including: Thriller; Rex the Runt; The Impressionable Jon Culshaw.
He had an extensive career in radio. He joined the BBC Light Programme and presented the following programmes
- Twelve o’Clock Spin (1964);
- Midday Spin (1965);
- Newly Pressed (1965);
- Housewives’ Choice (1965);
- Double Spin (1966);
- Take to the Boats! (1967);
- Swingalong (1967);
- Roundabout (1967 and BBC Radio 2, 1968).
He presented the regional news programme, South-East on the BBC Home Service (1965 – 1967) and BBC Radio 4 (1967 – 1970).
He was one of the initial five comperes on Late Night Extra on the BBC Light Programme. It was later broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, when they launched in September 1967.
He presented alongside Keith Fordyce, Michael Parkinson and Terry Wogan. From 1971, the show was broadcast solely on BBC Radio 2 and he left in March 1974.
From the late-1960s until 1998, he presented the long-running request programme, Anything Goes, on the BBC World Service.
He co-presented Top of the Form, with Tim Gudgin (BBC Radio 4, 1974 – 1977).
He moved to commercial radio, joining London’s LBC radio station, as an airborne traffic reporter, later progressing to reading networked news bulletins for IRN.
He was co-presenter, alongside Douglas Cameron, of the award-winning breakfast time AM programme on London’s LBC (1975 – 1985). He won the Variety Club Award for joint independent radio personality of the year in both 1979 and 1984.
In 1985, he returned to BBC Radio 2, presenting many shows including Bob Holness Requests the Pleasure (began in 1991) and Bob Holness and Friends, as well as covering various weekday shows for holidaying presenters. He left in 1997.
Bob was the subject of an urban myth, claimed to have been initiated in the 1980s by broadcaster Stuart Maconie.
Writing for the New Musical Express in a section called ‘Believe It or Not’, Maconie claimed Holness played the saxphone riff on Gerry Rafferty’s 1978 song, Baker Street.
The actual performer was Raphael Ravenscroft. Tommy Boyd, among others, has disputed Maconie’s claim to authorship of the rumour.
Bob supported many charities, including the children’s charities Teenage Cancer Trust, Young People’s Trust for the Environment and National Children’s Home (now Action for Children), of which he was vice-President from 1994.
He married former actress Mary Rose Clifford in 1955 and they had three children.
On 24th November 2002, he suffered a major stroke, following which a brain scan revealed he had previously suffered a number of transient ischaemic attacks over several years.
He also suffered from hearing loss, and began to use a hearing aid in 2003.
He was diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2005.
In the last few years of his life he suffered from vascular dementia and was cared for by his family at home until the last two weeks of his life when he entered Denville House nursing home.
He died aged 83.
Personal information
Clips of Bob on The TV Room
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Online presence
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: Bob Holness. COPYRIGHT: ITV plc.
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