Benson, John

John was born in 1928 (date unknown). He was one of ITV’s legendary, long-serving announcers.

With his distinctive voice, he worked across a number of ITV companies, from the 1950s to the 1980s.

During the 1960s, he presented the weekly Top Twenty Show, a one-hour British pop music chart countdown, broadcast in Northern Germany every Saturday on the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS).

He was the chief staff announcer for ABC TV in Manchester and Birmingham (1957 – 1966). He compéred the station’s tenth anniversary programme from Television House in Manchester.

He compéred one edition of ABC’s Thank Your Lucky Stars (1963).

He was a relief announcer for Rediffusion London (1967).

In 1968, he joined Thames Television, when it took over the London weekday franchise. He voiced the start of The Eamonn Andrews Show.

He voiced presentation trails for BBC Television (c. 1964 – 1971).

John spent most of his later career working as an announcer for Anglia TV.

He was best known to ITV viewers nationally for this introduction: “And now from Norwich, it’s the quiz of the week”.

This was the memorable line from the start of each edition of the long-running quiz, Sale of the Century, produced by Anglia TV for the ITV network (1973 – 1983).

Other game show credits:

• Strike It Lucky (Thames TV);
• Gambit (Anglia TV, 1975 – 1976);
• What’s My Line? (Thames TV);
• 3-2-1 (Yorkshire TV);
• Ultra Quiz (1984 – 1985).

John later freelanced at Westward TV, Southern TV and TVS (c. 1982).

He made appearances as an actor in these programmes:

• Between Ourselves (BBC TV, 1948);
• Whiteoaks (BBC TV, 1949);
• Cilla, starring Cilla Black (BBC One, 1969);
• Hark at Barker (1969);
• Milligan in… (BBC Two, 1973);
• Not on Your Nellie (LWT, 1974);
• Scrooge (1976);
• The Bill (Thames TV, 1989);
• Press Gang (1991);
• Love Hurts (BBC One, 1992);
• Birds of a Feather (BBC One, 1993 and 1994).

He acted as the in-vision announcer and comedic foil to Jonathan Ross on Channel 4’s The Last Resort (1987 – 1988).

On radio, he initially presented on the BBC Light Programme and moved to BBC Radio 2, at its launch in 1967. He stayed until c. 1993.

In the early 1970s, he hosted on a rota basis on Late Night Extra.

Other radio credits include:

• Star Sound Extra (BBC Radio 2, 1983);
• Star Sound Cinema (BBC Radio 2, 1986);
• Star Sound (BBC Radio 2, 1987);
• Morning Story (BBC Radio 4, 1987);
• The Monday Movie Hour (BBC Radio 2, 1987);
• Strike a British Note (1988);
• Success Story (1991);
• Panellist, On the Air (BBC Radio 2, 1991);
• Chas and Dave Plus Friends (BBC Radio 2, 1993).

John died in Norfolk in 1995, aged 67.

Personal information

Clips of John on The TV Room

John 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):

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Online presence

Acknowledgements