Serle, Chris

Chris was born in Bristol. He was a former actor with the Bristol Old Vic (joining in 1966).

His acting credits:

• Broad and Narrow (ATV, 1965);
• Dave Allen at Large (BBC One, 1971);
• Roland Rat: The Series (BBC One, 1988).

He moved into radio, as a producer on a variety of programmes:

• Late Night Extra (BBC Radio 1, 1969 – 1974);
• Petticoat Line (BBC Radio 4, 1969 – 1973);
• What’s So Funny About Pop? (BBC Radio 4, 1969);
• Right or Wrong? (BBC Radio 4, 1971 – 1972);
• Three in a Row (BBC Radio 2, 1972 – 1974);
• Beat the Record (BBC Radio 2, 1973);
• Brain of Britain (BBC Radio 4, 1975).

He transferred to television and worked as a researcher on BBC One’s Jim’ll Fix It and Parkinson.

He became known on television as one of Esther Rantzen’s ‘boys’, along with Paul Heiney, presenting on That’s Life (BBC One, January 1979 – 1981) and Junior That’s Life (BBC One, 1979).

He returned for the final programme That’s Life All Over! (BBC One, 19th June, 1994).

Chris worked again with Heiney on In at the Deep End (BBC One, 1982 – 1984 and 1987), where they tried their hand at different jobs.

He presented children’s TV series Ticket to Ride (BBC One, 1981) and the Sunday morning archive programme, Windmill (BBC Two, 1985 – 1988).

He was a guest on The Adventure Game (BBC Two, 1984) and was a guest presenter on Yorkshire TV’s children’s series The Book Tower (1986).

He was a panellist on Call My Bluff (BBC Two, 1984 – 1985 and 1987) and on Blankety Blank (BBC One, 1986 and 1988).

Other TV credits include:

• It Figures (BBC One, 1980);
• Medical Express (BBC One, 1980 – 1982);
• Motorfair (BBC One, 1981, 1983 and 1985);
• The Computer Programme (BBC One, 1982);
• Knock Knock (BBC One, 1982 – 1983);
• Reporter 60 Minutes (BBC One, 1983 – 1984);
• That Was the Year (BBC Two, 1983 – 1984);
• Footlights! (BBC One, 1983);
• Greek-Language and People (BBC Two, 1983);
• The Fort George Volunteers (BBC Two, 1983);
• Q.E.D. (BBC One, 1983 – 1984);
• Reporter Holiday (BBC One, 1984);
• Holiday Air (BBC One, 1985 – 1986);
• Farnborough (BBC Two, 1986);
• People (BBC One, 1988 – 1989);
• The World’s Strongest Man (BBC One, 1988);
• The Great Chase (BBC Two, 1989);
• Step Up to Wordpower (BBC One, 1990 – 1991);
• Chris Serle’s Summer Season (BBC Two, 1990 – 1992);
• Never Too Late (BBC One, 1994);
• Noel’s Telly Years (BBC One, 1996);
• Points of View (BBC One, 1997);
• The General (BBC One, 1998).

He directed Simple Science (BBC Two, 1976) and Tecair Ltd (BBC Two, 1978 and 1980).

He returned to BBC Radio behind the microphone as a presenter on BBC Radio 2 (1986 – 1988, 1990 – 1991 and 1996 – 1997) and as the chairman on Back to Square One (BBC Radio 2, 1990).

He presented a selection of excerpts from BBC Radio in Pick of the Week (BBC Radio 4, 1991 – 1998, and then as one of the semi-regular hosts until 2006) and had a long-running afternoon show on BBC Radio Bristol.

On 7th April 2004 he took part in BBC Radio 4’s The Reunion on That’s Life! alongside Esther Rantzen, Sir Peter Bazalgette (researcher), Jane Elsdon Dew (director), George Layton, Paul Heiney, Bill Buckley and Adrian Mills.

For 20 years he was a supporter of the Slapstick Festival.

He died aged 81.

Personal information

Clips of Chris on The TV Room

Chris may be featured in video/audio clips on our other websites. Click the links below to display a listing (a 404 error will appear if no clips are found):

Rewind | Clean Feed

Online presence

Acknowledgements