William G. Stewart

For other people named William Stewart, see William Stewart (disambiguation).
William G. Stewart
Born
William Gladstone Stewart

(1933-07-15)15 July 1933[1]
Lancaster, England
Died21 September 2017(2017-09-21) (aged 84)
Years active1960s–2017
Spouses
Audrey Harrison
​
​
(m. 1960; div. 1976)​
​
​
(m. 1976; div. 1986)​
Laura Calland
​
(m. 1997)​
Children5

William Gladstone Stewart (15 July 1933 – 21 September 2017) was an English television producer, director, and television presenter, best known as the presenter and producer of the Channel 4 quiz show Fifteen to One from 1988 to 2003.

Early life

Stewart was born on 15 July 1933 in Lancaster.[2][3] He was orphaned as a child before the age of three,[4] and he was raised in a children's home in Sidcup, Kent until the age of 17.[2][5] After leaving Shooters Hill Grammar School (now called Shooters Hill Sixth Form College) in 1950, Stewart was employed in jobs working in an office and enrolled at Woolwich Polytechnic.[2][6] He undertook his National Service in Kenya and worked as a teacher in the Royal Army Educational Corps from 1952 to 1955 as part of his attachment to the King's African Rifles.[4][6][1]

In 1958, Stewart ventured to Southampton to join the Merchant Navy, though an industrial action prevented him from doing so.[2] Instead, he applied to be a redcoat with the seaside resort chain Butlins at Butlin's Pwllheli in North Wales. Stewart said of the opportunity, "I thought I'd have a great time and perhaps work in the kitchens. But, while I was having an interview, a chap asked if I wanted to be a redcoat. He must have seen something in me."[2] There, he organised a talent contest won by Jimmy Tarbuck and led the teenager to become a redcoat and a stand-up comedian.[2]

Broadcasting career

Stewart went to a talk organised by the producer T Lesley Jackson about a career in television at the YMCA in Brixton in south-west London in 1958. It encouraged him to speak to Jackson and apply for the job of a call-boy for the BBC's Light Entertainment output. He later became an assistant floor manager and a stage manager, before ending up as a production assistant.[5][4] After the 1959 general election, Stewart began working as private secretary to Tom Driberg, the Labour Member of Parliament. Driberg taught Stewart about art, classical music and literature, and broadened his social circle.[4]

He was encouraged by the comedian Eric Sykes to enrol on a television director's course in 1965.[4] Stewart was advised his best career path would be to remain in the entertainment industry, and Sykes recommended Stewart to his fellow light entertainment comedian Frank Muir.[1] The same year, he directed episodes of the sitcoms Call It What You Like and Sykes and a...[2] Stewart moved to the rival broadcaster ITV in 1967, working for the Associated Television, London Weekend Television and Thames Television franchises.[2][7] He was a director on 54 episodes of the The Frost Programme,[2][7] and The Frost Report for Associated-Rediffusion.[4]

Among the many shows he produced or directed were Father, Dear Father, Love Thy Neighbour, Bless This House, My Good Woman, Spooner's Patch, The Rag Trade, Family Fortunes, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, Thirty Minutes Worth, My Name Is Harry Worth, The Reg Varney Show, The Many Wives of Patrick, and The Price Is Right.[8][9] He also presented the short-lived 1992 quiz show Famous People, Famous Places, made by his company, Regent Productions (which also produced Fifteen to One) that he founded in 1982, for Thames Television and shown only in the London region. He later sold Regent to Pearson Television (which also purchased Thames) in 1999, and they have now been amalgamated (along with the likes of Grundy Productions) into Talkback Thames, the UK arm of FremantleMedia.[2][5][9]

In 1998, he successfully sued the Fifteen to One contestant Trevor Montague, who had lied to reappear on the programme.[10] He made a documentary of Tom Driberg in 2009.[11][12] Stewart was a frequent contributor of media matters articles to the Broadcast, Evening Standard, Impact, RTS Journal, The Independent, The Listener, The Producer and Televisual publications.[6] He was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 1996 and was president of The Media Society from 2003 to 2005.[6][9]

Personal life

He was thrice married:[9]

  1. Audrey Harrison (1960–1976) with whom he had one son, Nick.[9]
  2. Actress Sally Geeson (1976–1986) with whom he had one daughter, Hayley, and one son, Barnaby.[9]
  3. Laura Calland (1997–2017) with whom he had two daughters, Isobel and Hannah. Calland was the voice-over artist for Fifteen to One.[4]

He was a long-standing supporter of the campaign to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece.[13] He joked that if, on an episode of Fifteen to One, too few contestants survived the first round to continue the game, he would give a speech on the Marbles to fill the time. This happened in a 2001 episode, where he gave a lengthy presentation stating the case to return them, for which the channel was criticised.[14]

He died on 21 September 2017 at the age of 84.[15] At the time of his death, his birthplace was reported as being the Lincolnshire village of Habrough.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c "William G Stewart; Gifted television producer and presenter best known as the sober quizmaster on Fifteen to One". The Daily Telegraph. 23 September 2017. p. 27. Retrieved 30 June 2019 – via Infotrac Newsstand.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hayward, Anthony (24 September 2017). "William G Stewart obituary; Host of TV quiz show Fifteen to One and producer-director of British light entertainment from Bless This House to Family Fortunes". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Content: J. Sep. Science 24'17". Journal of Separation Science. 40 (24): 4663–4666. December 2017. doi:10.1002/jssc.201770243. ISSN 1615-9306.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "William G Stewart; Host of quickfire TV quiz show Fifteen to One and producer-director of the comedies Bless This House and Father Dear Father". The Times. 9 October 2017. p. 50. Retrieved 30 June 2019 – via Academic OneFile.
  5. ^ a b c Smith, Giles (26 February 1994). "Game Boy". The Independent Magazine. pp. 34, 36-37. Retrieved 11 September 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b c d Rains, Sara, ed. (2008). "Stewart William Gladstone". Dictionary of International Biography (34th ed.). Cambridge, England: Melrose Press. p. 1005. ISBN 978-1903986-30-1 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ a b Nadelson, Reggie (26 September 1990). "Big man, big ideas". The Independent. p. 19. Retrieved 11 September 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Noble, Peter, ed. (1982). "Who's Who in International Films and Television". International Film and TV Yearbook 1982-83 (31st ed.). Screen International. p. 634. ISBN 0-900925-14-0 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Winter, Laura, ed. (2009). "Stewart, William Gladstone". Debrett's People of Today 2010. Richmond, England: Debrett's Limited. p. 1615. ISBN 978-1-870520-42-3 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ Deans, Jason (20 September 2001). "Millionaire: the background". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2017 – via www.theguardian.com.
  11. ^ TV review from The Times, 20 March 2009
  12. ^ "Tom Driberg and Me: A Personal Portrait by William G Stewart", BBC Four, March 2009
  13. ^ The National Lottery People's Quiz – BBC.co.uk
  14. ^ "Channel 4 hit by wrestling rap". BBC. 12 February 2001.
  15. ^ "William G Stewart, 15 to 1 host, dies aged 84". BBC News. 21 September 2017.
  16. ^ William G Stewart, television presenter – obituary. The Telegraph. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
Media offices
New creation Host of Fifteen to One
1988–2003 		Succeeded by