Frank Muir - Birth and early life, Early career, Writing for radio, Trivia

Writer and broadcaster, born in London, UK. He served in the RAF (1940–6), and joined Denis Norden to become one of the best-known teams of comedy script-writers (1947–64), contributing to many shows on radio and television. After a short period in television management he returned to facing the camera in Call My Bluff (1970), and began the radio series Frank Muir Goes into... (1971). With Norden he has published a number of books on the theme My Word, such as The Complete and Utter ‘My Word!’ Collection (1983), and by himself a series of children's books based on the dog ‘What-a-Mess’.

Francis Herbert (Frank) Muir (5 February 1920 - 2 January 1998) was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur.

Birth and early life

Born and brought up in his grandmother's pub, The Derby Arms in Ramsgate, Kent, he spent part of his childhood in the E.10 district of London.

Early career

Frank Muir joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and became a photographic technician, being posted to Iceland.

Writing for radio

Upon his return to civilian life he began to write scripts for Jimmy Edwards. Given that Edwards was gay, it is surprising that both Muir and his long-standing Call My Bluff opposing captain, Paddy Campbell, were once both extremely unpleasant towards comic Kenneth Williams when they found themselves as guests with him on a BBC Parkinson show, patently only behaving so because of Williams´ evident homosexual manner. When Edwards' teamed up with Dick Bentley on BBC Radio, Muir formed his partnership with Denis Norden, Bentley's writer, which was to last for most of his career. The vehicle created for the two men, Take It From Here, was written by Muir and Norden from 1948 until 1959;

Muir and Norden continued to write for Edwards when he began to work for BBC television with the school comedy series Whack-O, and in several later anthology series'.

The pair were also invited to appear on the newly-formed humorous literary radio quiz My Word!. A feature of the show was the final round, in which Muir and Norden would each tell a long-winded story inspired by a well-known phrase provided by the quizmaster and ending in a terrible pun on the phrase in question.

Frank Muir was also a contestant on the My Word spinoff My Music (as was Norden). As a television personality, Muir's unofficial trademark was a crisply-knotted pink bowtie.

He was well-known to television audiences as a team captain on the long-running BBC2 series, Call My Bluff, and did voice-overs for advertisements, notably Cadbury's Fruit &

His pets, which prompted many an anecdote on My Word!, included Afghan Hounds and Burmese cats.

In the 1960s Frank Muir was Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC and in 1969 joined London Weekend Television as Head of Entertainment.

He married in 1949 and had two children.

Trivia

Long time resident of the village of Thorpe, Surrey.