Gilbert Harding
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Gilbert Charles Harding (born in Hereford, 5 June 1907, died in London, 16 November 1960) was a well-known journalist and radio and television personality. His many careers included schoolmaster, journalist, police officer, disc jockey, interviewer and television presenter. He also appeared in several films, sometimes in character parts but usually as himself.
His father was killed at an early age and so his mother placed him into the care of The Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton. He went on to attend Cambridge University before teaching English in Canada and France. Harding returned to Britain and worked as a police officer in Bradford. He then took a position as The Times correspondent in Cyprus. In 1936 he again returned to England and began a long-term career with the BBC.
He regularly appeared on the television programme What's My Line as a panellist; and also on the programme as the presenter for the very first episode. Harding was infamous for bullying his interviewees and was at one time known as "the rudest man in Britain."
Harding's fame sprang from an inability to suffer fools. The 50s TV viewers watched What's My Line less for the quiz elements than for the chance of a live Harding outburst. An incident on an early broadcast started this trend when Harding became annoyed with a rather self-satisfied contestant. He broke the genteel civility of 1950s BBC TV by telling the contestant that he was getting bored with him. The tabloids lapped this up and the show became compulsive viewing.
The insults on TV were nothing to those in private, such as a wedding reception at which a guest remarked that the bride and groom would make an ideal couple. Harding replied sharply 'you should know, you've slept with both of them'.
He became increasingly unable to move anywhere in public without being accosted by adoring viewers. It didn't take much for his venomous side to appear, as when he asked a mother with two children if 'your children are crippled', because they had stayed seated on a railway bench.
Behind this formidable exterior there was a lonely and complex man who constantly donated to charity, visited the sick and helped many in need. But such details, in conflict with the public image, only reached the public after his death.
Harding's health was poor and he indulged in food and drink to extremes. A 50s celebrity cookery feature has Harding explain his fondness for a risotto made with a large amount of butter.
However the tables were briefly turned in 1960 when he was reduced to tears on the live show Face to Face, after being questioned by the host John Freeman. As the focus of the interview moved onto the subject of death, Freeman asked Harding if he had ever been in the presence of a dead person. At this point, in replying in the affirmative, Harding's voice began to break and his eyes watered. Freeman later admitted he hadn't anticipated the effect this would have. Harding had recently witnessed his mother's death. He had had to live with her unflinching opinion that he was a failure in life.
Freeman publicly expressed regret about this line of questioning, which was seen by some commentators in retrospect as a tactless attempt to expose Harding's homosexuality, though the viewing public did not become aware of it, and he was viewed as merely a lonely bachelor. At that time homosexuality was illegal in the UK. Harding also admitted in the programme that his bad manners and temper were "indefensible". "I'm profoundly lonely", he stated; later adding "I would very much like to be dead".
He died just a few weeks after the programme was broadcast, directly after recording a radio programme, collapsing on the steps of Broadcasting House as he was about to climb into a taxi. The cause was an asthma attack. He was 53.
The Face to Face interview was re-broadcast on BBC Four, on October 18, 2005; following a repeated episode of What's My Line.
