Barry Norman

Barry Leslie Norman, CBE (born 21 August 1933 in London) is a British film critic, writer and media personality. He presented BBC Television's Film 72 (and successive years) until 1998.

Early life

Barry Norman is the son of film director Leslie and Elizabeth Norman.^[1] He was educated at a state primary school and at Highgate School, then an all-boys independent school in North London. He did not go to university, but instead began his career in journalism at the Kensington News, later spending a period in South Africa where he developed a hostility to the situation created there by the emergence of apartheid. He is the brother of script editor and director Valerie Norman.

Career

By the 1960s, Norman was a prominent journalist, and show business editor of the Daily Mail until 1971, when he was made redundant. Subsequently, he wrote a column each Wednesday for The Guardian, also contributing leader columns to the newspaper.

He was one of the collaborators with Wally Fawkes on the long running cartoon strip Flook. He has also contributed a column to the Radio Times for many years, and has written several novels.

Film critic

He presented BBC1's Film programme from 1972, becoming the sole presenter the following year. Norman's involvement was broken in 1982 by a brief spell presenting Omnibus. After having returned to the Film series in 1983, Norman became increasingly irritated by the BBC's reluctance to screen the programme at a regular time, and in 1998 he finally accepted an offer to work for BSkyB, where he remained for three years.^[2] Jonathan Ross took his place as the BBC programme's presenter.

Norman has written and presented a number of documentary series for the BBC, including Hollywood Greats (1977–79, 1983), British Greats (1980) and Talking Pictures (1987).

Radio

Barry Norman was for some years a regular radio broadcaster. He was the original presenter of the BBC Radio 4 transport and travel show Going Places and of its sister travel magazine, Breakaway. He is a former chairman of The News Quiz on Radio 4 and also presented for the network, The Chip Shop, an early 1980s series dedicated to the emerging home computer industry.

Satire

He is associated with the phrase "and why not?", which originated not as his catchphrase - though he did say it occasionally on his programmes - but as that of his puppet likeness on the satirical show Spitting Image. Norman has since adopted the phrase himself, and it is the title of his autobiography. In a recent ITV documentary on Spitting Image, Norman admitted initially hating the way his puppet looked on the programme (mostly because it had a large inexplicable wart on its forehead, which he doesn't have), but later somewhat moderated his attitude and felt flattered that the series found him famous enough to include him in its sketches.

Personal life

Norman married author Diana in 1957; the couple had two daughters.^[1] She died on 27 January 2011 at the age of 77.^[3]

He was awarded the BAFTA's Richard Dimbleby Award in 1980, Magazine Columnist of the Year in 1990 and a CBE in 1998.^[4]

Norman has a passion for cricket; he is in the process of writing a book on the subject. He is a member of the MCC and likes spending time at Lord's watching cricket.

Norman has a family recipe for pickle that has been passed down through generations, and which was used as the recipe for his own brand of pickled onions, which went on sale in September 2007.^[5][6]

Politically, Norman is a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.^[7] He was a supporter of the Labour Party until the formation of the Social Democratic Party in 1981. He has named Shirley Williams as the politician he most admires.^[8]

Memoirs

• And Why Not?: Memoirs of a Film Lover (2003)
• See You in the Morning (2013)

References

• Clive Conway Celebrity Productions page on Barry Norman
• Barry Norman at the Internet Movie Database