Originally published by L.S. Media. January 6th 2012.
The world of radio and television was in mourning today with the news that game show host and B.B.C. Radio 2 presenter Bob Holness has died aged 83.
There can’t be too many game show hosts who had the genuine people touch who also had the distinction of being one of a handful of people to have played the iconic and suave British spy James Bond. If that wasn’t enough for one life, to be the subject of one of the greatest urban myths of all time is just outrageously phenomenal for 10 life times, let alone just one.
Bob Holness was born in South Africa in 1928 and shortly afterwards his family moved from Vryheid in the Natal to Ashford in Kent. After spending his early life at Ashford Grammar School and Eastbourne College he got the first big break of his career when he became only the second person to play James Bond, ironically in the country of his birth, in a radio production of Moonraker.
In an interview many years later Bob Holness told a reporter, “I was doing lots of radio plays at the time but I wanted to do something a bit different, so when James Bond came up I ventured in and said yes.”
Whilst in South Africa Bob met his wife Mary and finally returned to England once more where he joined the B.B.C. as a radio presenter alongside Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson.
The defining moment of an illustrious career though surely must be as host on the game show Blockbusters. For 10 years hundreds of young adults played the question answer game but also with one eye on the chance to say the immortal double entendre request “Can I have a P please, Bob?”
It was repeated so many times that a lot of hosts would have got fed up with constant and unofficial catchphrase but to Bob’s credit and showing the measure of the man’s personality, he always seemed to laugh long at the joke.
If that was the defining moment of a distinguished career then the urban myth to top all urban myths should surely rank a very close second. Many people have claimed to initiate the story including presenters Stuart Marconie and Tommy Boyd. Whoever it was though, they deserve a medal for suggesting that Bob Holness was the man who played the stunning saxophone solo on the Gerry Rafferty 1978 hit Baker Street. As with the double entendre this amused the T.V. host and he afterwards often jokingly claimed to be the lead guitarist on the Derek and the Dominoes hit, Layla.
Bob Holness is survived by his wife Mary and three children.
Robert Wentworth John Holness. 12th December 1928- 6th January 2012.