Kenneth Horne

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Kenneth Horne

Born Charles Kenneth Horne
27 February 1907(1907-02-27)
St Pancras, London[1]
Died 14 February 1969 (aged 61)
Dorchester Hotel, Westminster, London[2]
Cause of death Stroke
Nationality British
Occupation Comedian and businessman

Kenneth Horne (27 February 1907, London – 14 February 1969) was an English comedian and businessman. He starred in the BBC radio programmes Much Binding in the Marsh, (with Richard Murdoch), Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne - in the latter he was given a number of strange names. As well as being an excellent comedian he was also chairman of Triplex Glass (later merged into Pilkington) and Chad Valley Toys, until he gave up business due to a stroke and concentrated on his comedy. He was particularly close to Kenneth Williams, who looked on him as a substitute father. He also did some TV advertising and he was in the series Horne A'plenty. He hosted a game show called Treasure Hunt - not to be confused with the later Kenneth Kendall / Anneka Rice show of the same name - on Westward Television.

Born Charles Kenneth Horne,[3] he was the son of Charles Silvester Horne (1865-1914), a Congregationalist minister, Liberal MP for Ipswich, and powerful orator who built the White House in Sandford Avenue, Church Stretton as the family home, and is commemorated by the 'Silvester Horne Institute' in Church Stretton, Shropshire. His maternal grandfather was Herbert Cozens-Hardy, the Liberal MP for North Norfolk who became both the Master of the Rolls and Baron Cozens-Hardy on 1 July 1914.

During World War II, Horne served in the RAF, reaching the rank of Wing Commander. As part of BBC radio's support of the war effort entertainment programmes were devised to target each wing of the armed forces, this led to Horne's involvement in Much-Binding-In-The-Marsh set at the titular fictitious air force base, a series which continued until 1954.

He died from a stroke whilst standing up to make a speech at the Dorchester Hotel in London, just after the fourth series of Round the Horne was completed. A fifth series had been commissioned, but it was decided that the show could not continue without its star.

Editions of Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne are regularly broadcast on the digital radio service BBC 7.

In recent years a successful stage show called Round the Horne - Revisited using the original scripts, has toured Britain with actors vocally impersonating the cast, Kenneth Horne being played by Jonathan Rigby.

Contents

[edit] Radio

[edit] Television

  • Horne A'Plenty (1968)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ GRO Register of Births: JUN 1907 1b 5 PANCRAS - Charles Kenneth Horne
  2. ^ GRO Register of Deaths: MAR 1969 5E 1072 WESTMINSTER - Charles K. Horne, aged 62
  3. ^ Barry Took, "Horne, (Charles) Kenneth (1907–1969)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 [1], accessed 17 April 2007


Persondata
NAME Horne, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Horne, Charles Kenneth
SHORT DESCRIPTION Comedian and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH 1907-02-27
PLACE OF BIRTH St Pancras, London
DATE OF DEATH 1969-02-14
PLACE OF DEATH Dorchester Hotel, Westminster, London