Irene Thomas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irene Thomas (28 June 1919 – 27 March 2001) was a British radio personality, well known for her participation in quiz shows and panel games from the 1960s until her death.

Irene Thomas was born Elsie Irene Ready in Feltham, Middlesex, into a working-class family, the daughter of a musician in a military band. She left school at fifteen, and embarked on a career as a musician and singer. In 1946 she joined the chorus at Covent Garden, and met and married her second husband, Eddie Thomas, to whom she remained married until her death. She branched out into session singing, joined the George Mitchell Minstrels and became the familiar voice of many radio and television advertising jingles in the 1950s.

In 1961 she entered and won radio's Brain of Britain contest. This heralded a forty-year period as a mainstay of radio panel game quiz programmes. In 1967, after much lobbying of the producers, she joined the panel on Round Britain Quiz, regarded as the most erudite of the BBC's quiz shows, and rapidly became its most celebrated panellist.

Her autobiography, The Bandsman's Daughter, was published in 1979.

External links

Obituary, The Independent, 5 April 2001
Photo of Irene Thomas in 1961

Authority control	VIAF: 55921290

Persondata
Name	Thomas, Irene
Alternative names
Short description	British radio personality
Date of birth	28 June 1919
Place of birth
Date of death	27 March 2001
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.