Editing Eamonn Andrews (section)

==Broadcasting career==

By 1944, he was{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} the Hon. Secretary of [[St. Andrew's Boxing Club]]. In 1946, he became a full-time freelance sports commentator, working for [[Raidió Teilifís Éireann|Radio Éireann]], Ireland's state broadcaster. In 1950, he began presenting programmes for the BBC, being particularly well known for boxing commentaries, and soon became one of television's most popular presenters.<ref name=boya/> The following year, the game show ''[[What's My Line? (British game show)|What's My Line?]]'' began and Andrews was the host.<ref name="imdb" /> He was also an occasional panellist on the [[What's My Line?|American version]], and once acted as host when [[John Charles Daly]] was absent.

Throughout the 1950s, he commentated on the major British heavyweight fights on the [[BBC Light Programme]], with inter-round summaries by [[W. Barrington Dalby]]. On 20 January 1956, he reached No 18 in the [[UK Singles Chart]] with a "spoken narrative" recording named "[[Shifting Whispering Sands|The Shifting Whispering Sands]] (Parts 1 & 2)", which was produced by [[George Martin]] with musical backing by the [[Ron Goodwin]] Orchestra, released by Parlophone as catalogue number R 4106, a double-sided 78 rpm record.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book |first=David |last=Roberts |year=2006 |title=British Hit Singles & Albums|edition=19th|publisher=Guinness World Records |location=London |isbn=1-904994-10-5|page=24}}</ref> The song later reappeared on [[Kenny Everett]]'s compilation album ''The World's Worst Record Show'', released in June 1978.

Between 1950 and 1964, he presented the long-running ''[[Sports Report]]'' on the BBC Light Programme.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Pat |title=Sports Report - A Celebration of the World’s Longest-Running Sports Radio Programme |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4729-9421-9 |edition=1st |location=Great Britain |pages=24}}</ref> In 1965, he left the BBC to join the ITV contractor [[ABC Weekend TV|ABC]], where he was the first host of ''[[World of Sport (British TV programme)|World of Sport]]'' and where he pioneered the [[chat show]] format in the [[United Kingdom|UK]]. He hosted ''The Eamonn Andrews Show'' on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] for five years.<ref name=":0">[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260612/ "The Eamonn Andrews Show (1964–1969)"], IMDb.</ref> He was known for coming up with off-the-cuff linkings that did not work, such as: "Speaking of cheese sandwiches, have you come far?" This was parodied by the character Seamus Android on ''[[Round the Horne]]'' in the 1960s, performed by [[Bill Pertwee]]. In the 1960s and 1970s he presented [[Thames Television]]'s ''Today'' news magazine programme.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/itvlondon/thames-news1.html |title=Thames News Bulletins & Magazines |website=[[TVARK]] |access-date=10 January 2015 |url-status=usurped |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150110202113/http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/itvlondon/thames-news1.html |archive-date=10 January 2015}}</ref>

He was probably best known as the presenter of the UK version of ''[[This Is Your Life (British TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'', between its inception in 1955 and his death in 1987, when he was succeeded by [[Michael Aspel]] (who like Andrews hosted ''[[Crackerjack! (TV series)|Crackerjack!]]'' nearly twenty years earlier). Andrews was the first ''This Is Your Life'' subject on British television when he was surprised by the show's creator, [[Ralph Edwards]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FEE6c6LIdQ | title=Eamonn Andrews - an extract from the first British edition of This is Your Life | website=[[YouTube]] | date=22 May 2011 }}</ref> Andrews also created a long-running panel game called ''Whose Baby?'' that originally ran on the BBC and later on ITV. He was a regular presenter of the early [[Miss World]] pageants.<ref name=boya/><ref name="imdb">{{IMDb name|0028644|Eamonn Andrews}}</ref>

Andrews chaired the [[Radio Éireann]] Authority (now the [[RTÉ Authority]]) between 1960 and 1964, overseeing the introduction of state television to the Ireland and establishing the broadcaster as an independent semi-state body. At about this time, he also acquired a number of business interests in Ireland, including recording studios and a dance hall.<ref name=boya/> Andrews stepped down from the RTÉ Authority amidst a bitter political storm over what was seen as the controversial content of ''[[The Late Late Show (Irish talk show)|The Late Late Show]]''. Before leaving RTÉ, Andrews defended the show as 'freedom of expression'.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dwyer |first=Ryle |url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/this-is-how-the-late-late-show-helped-spark-a-cultural-revolution-in-ireland-381177.html |title=This is how the Late Late Show helped spark a cultural revolution in Ireland |date=11 February 2016 |newspaper=[[Irish Examiner]] |location=Cork |quote=Andrews defended the Late Late Show's freedom of expression. The programme continued to flourish but Andrews quit as chairman of the RTÉ Authority a little over a fortnight later. 'I am afraid the authority as now constituted is too susceptible to outside pressures,' he wrote to then [[Taoiseach]] [[Seán Lemass]]. 'I have tried to compromise to the point beyond which honesty will not permit me to go.'}}</ref>