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Jonathan Routh

Published Tuesday 10 June 2008 at 12:25 by Patrick Newley

Practical joker, broadcaster and writer Jonathan Routh was the original co-presenter, with Bob Monkhouse, of ITV’s Candid Camera, the sixties show featuring hidden camera stunts at the expense of the general public. The hugely successful series, which ran from 1960-7, was the precursor of Game for a Laugh and Beadle’s About.

Monkhouse hosted the show, sending Routh out in search of gullible citizens, whilst the hidden cameras witnessed their reactions to impossible situations - garage mechanics asked to discover why a car wouldn’t start and finding it had no engine, a man selling £5 notes for £4 10s. A tailor was persuaded to make a suit for a chimpanzee and, on one occasion, Routh stuck his head out of a man-hole and told passers-by that he was looking for Baker Street underground.

One of Routh’s most famous stunts was organising a ‘silent recital by an unknown Hungarian pianist’ at Wigmore Hall. ‘Tomas Blod’ performed ‘Transmogrifications, Opus 37, by Sandal’, in which he sat at the piano and played not a note. At the end of each stunt, punters were put out of their misery with the words, ‘Smile, you’re on Candid Camera’. The series was revived by LWT in 1974, when it was produced and presented by Peter Dulay.

Jonathan Routh was born on November 24, 1927, and spent his childhood in Palestine, where his father was a colonial governor. He was educated at Uppingham School, but was eventually expelled for putting up a banner which read, “Vote Routh, Communist”.

He read history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and on leaving became editor of the showbiz paper Everybody’s Magazine. Later he went to work as a DJ on Radio Luxembourg.

Candid Camera made him a national figure and when the series finished he returned to writing. He wrote the bestselling The Good Loo Guide, a review of the best and worst London lavatories. Other books included a book on hangovers and one on disasters, entitled So You Think You’ve Got Problems. He had written an autobiography, The Little Men in My Life, in 1953.

He appeared in several films, including Casino Royale (1967) and 30 is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968) and for many years was a prolific painter. His paintings were included in a series of popular children’s books, including The Nuns Go to Africa, The Nuns Go to Penguin Island and Jamaica Holiday - The Secret Life of Queen Victoria.

In the eighties, Routh and his second wife, Shelagh Marvin, a film publicist, moved permanently to Jamaica, where they lived in a wooden hut with no mains water, telephone or electriciy, overlooking Montego Bay. Routh spent most of his last years painting.

He died on June 4, aged 80. He is survived by his second wife and two sons from his fiest marriage.

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