Editing Eamonn Andrews

{{Short description|Irish TV and radio personality (1922–1987)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Eamonn Andrews
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|commas=on|CBE}}
| image       = Eamonn Andrews, 1954.jpg
| image_size  = 
| caption     = Andrews circa 1954
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1922|12|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = Synge Street, [[Dublin]], Ireland
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1987|11|05|1922|12|19|df=y}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
| nationality = [[Irish citizenship|Irish]]
| occupation  = Television and radio presenter
| years active = 1946–1987
| spouse      = {{marriage|Gráinne Bourke|1951}}
| children    = 3 adopted children
| relatives   = [[Noel Andrews]] (brother)}}

'''Eamonn Andrews''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|commas=on|CBE}} (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the [[United Kingdom]] from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the [[Radio Éireann]] Authority (now the [[RTÉ Authority]]), which oversaw the introduction of a state television service in [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]. He is perhaps best remembered as the UK host of ''[[This Is Your Life (British TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' from its inception in 1955 until his death in 1987.

==Early life==

Andrews was born in Synge Street, Dublin, son of carpenter William Andrews and Margaret, née Farrell.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-40151|title=Andrews, Eamonn (1922–1987), radio and television broadcaster|year=2004 |accessdate=11 March 2023|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40151 }}</ref> He was educated at [[Synge Street CBS]]. He began his career as a clerk in an insurance office. He was a keen amateur boxer and won the Irish junior middleweight title in 1944.<ref name=boya>{{cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography|edition= 3rd |page=5|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and Macmillan|isbn = 0-7171-2945-4}}</ref>

==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>

==Death==

After months of illness during 1987, originally caused by a virus contracted during a plane journey, Andrews died from [[heart failure]] on 5 November 1987 aged 64 at the [[Cromwell Hospital]] in London.

He had recorded his last edition of ''This Is Your Life'' six days before on 30 October 1987. After his death, the show, and two others that had yet to be broadcast, were postponed until, with his widow's permission, they were broadcast in January 1988.

A funeral service was held for Andrews at St Anne's Church in [[Portmarnock]] where he had his home, and his body was buried in [[Balgriffin Cemetery]] to the north of Dublin. A memorial mass was held for him in [[Westminster Cathedral]].<ref>'TV star Eamonn Andrews loved Porthmarnock home', ''Fingal Independent'', 24 September 2004.</ref>

==Personal life==

Andrews married Gráinne Bourke in 1951.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/andrews-eamonn-a0157 | title=Andrews, Eamonn &#124; Dictionary of Irish Biography }}</ref> They raised three adopted children.<ref>Interview with his daughters, RTE1, 23 June 2012.</ref>

==Civic recognition==

For his work in British broadcasting, Andrews was awarded an honorary [[Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire]] in 1970.<ref>'Andrews' Death cast doubt upon the future of his show'. ''The Guardian''. London. 6 November 1987.</ref>

Andrews' contribution to radio in the United Kingdom is commemorated in the Radio Academy Hall of Fame.

==Television credits==

*''[[What's My Line? (British game show)|What's My Line?]]'' (BBC, 1951–63; Thames, 1984–87)
*''[[This Is Your Life (British TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' (BBC, 1955–64; Thames, 1969–87)
*''[[Crackerjack! (TV series)|Crackerjack!]]'' (BBC, 1955–64) and ''[[Playbox (1950s TV series)|Playbox]]'' (BBC) (both children's series)
*''The Eamonn Andrews Show'' (ABC, 1964–68; Thames 1968–69)
*''[[World of Sport (UK TV series)|World of Sport]]'' (ABC, 1965–68)
*''Whose Baby?'' (a panel game he created and owned)
*''Top of the World'' (Thames, 1982)

== Portrayal in media ==

Andrews was parodied as "Seamus Android", played by [[Bill Pertwee]], in the radio comedy ''[[Round the Horne]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/roundthehorne/ | title=Round the Horne | publisher=BBC |access-date=15 October 2023}}</ref>

Andrews appears as a character in Series 8, Episode 1, of the television detective series ''[[Endeavour (TV series)|Endeavour]]''. Andrews, played by [[Lewis MacLeod (actor)|Lewis Macleod]], surprises a celebrity footballer during a [[fashion show]] in [[Oxford]].{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} Andrews also served as the namesake for a song by English progressive rock band [[Soft Machine]].

==See also==

* [[List of people on the postage stamps of Ireland]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}<ref name=":0" />

==External links==
* {{screenonline name|id=569940|name=Eamonn Andrews}}
* [http://www.petermarsh.freeuk.com/stockcar/staines.html Andrews pictured as stock-car racing commentator in 1955]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Eamonn}}
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:1987 deaths]]
[[Category:Irish game show hosts]]
[[Category:Irish male boxers]]
[[Category:Honorary commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Irish expatriates in England]]
[[Category:Irish radio presenters]]
[[Category:People educated at Synge Street CBS]]
[[Category:Irish television talk show hosts]]
[[Category:Boxing commentators]]
[[Category:Television personalities from Dublin (city)]]
[[Category:People from Portobello, Dublin]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish sportsmen]]
[[Category:1960s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1970s in Irish music]]