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Norden is nowadays best known to television audiences for his two occasional ITV shows.
Aside from this success, he has had a long and distinguished career as a Scriptwriter and radio and TV personality, frequently partnered by Frank Muir . EARLY LIFE & CAREER Educated at the City Of London School with Kingsley Amis , Norden "was considered to have a fine academic brain". Upon leaving school he worked as a Stagehand . He then managed a Theatre at the age of 17 and organised Variety Show s. His writing career began in the RAF during World War II for troop shows, following which he wrote material for comedian Dick Bentley , before meeting Muir in 1947 . Their first joint venture was the Radio show, '' Take It From Here '', which they scripted from 1948 to 1959. They went on to write many successful radio and television scripts, including '' Whacko '' (1956-60) and three series of '' Faces Of Jim '' (1961-63), both as vehicles for Jimmy Edwards . In 1964, their writing partnership broke up, as Muir moved into management with the BBC . Over the next several years, Norden, who had long had a fascination with Hollywood, wrote the scripts for several films, most notably ''Buona Sera Mrs Campbell''. While no longer writing with Muir, they continued as something of a double act, and were regular participants in panel shows such as '' My Word! '' (1956-90) and '' My Music '' (1966-93), first on radio then TV. Norden also hosted an ITV nostalgia quiz, ''Looks Familiar''. RETIREMENT & LEGACY He and his wife Avril have a son, Nick, an Architect , and a daughter, Maggie, a Radio Presenter and lecturer at the London College Of Fashion . He announced his retirement from his two ongoing ITV shows ''It'll be Alright on the Night'' and ''Denis Norden's Laughter File'', on 21 April 2006 . A special show was recorded on 14 May 2006 as a 'farewell tour' to all his shows over the years, called ''All the Best from Denis Norden'', which was shown on 2 January 2007 . As the show's closing credits were shown, the studio audience arose to give Denis a standing ovation, and this was followed by Denis placing his trademark clipboard on his desk, which the camera then zoomed in on to as the credits ended. TRIVIA Norden also has an unusual link to the James Bond movie series. In 1965, Norden wrote, narrated and starred in a short featurette jointly made by the Bond producers and The Ford Motor Company. The colour short, entitled "A Child's Guide To Blowing Up A Motor Car", went behind the scenes of an exploding car stunt being filmed for Thunderball . The story of the short is that Norden is taking a young relative on a day out to a movie set. He meets several stars and production team members, but not Sean Connery . Lost for many years, it is now available on the 'Ultimate Edition' DVD of Thunderball , as released in late 2006. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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