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Christopher Trace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Leonard Trace (March 21, 1933 – September 5, 1992) was a British actor and television presenter, most famous for his nine year stint as a presenter of the BBC One children's programme Blue Peter.
After a period in the army and a somewhat desultory acting career – his greatest screen role being Charlton Heston's body double in Ben-Hur – Trace became the very first presenter of Blue Peter on 16 October 1958, and stayed with the programme until 24 July 1967.
On his departure, Trace was first involved in a failed film venture, before returning to the BBC, first on local television and then the acclaimed programme Nationwide. He later had a slot on BBC Radio Norwich.
By the 1970s, he had retired from the media, but returned to celebrate Blue Peter’s 20th anniversary in 1978. In the 1990s, he briefly returned to the BBC to host Are You Sitting Comfortably? on Radio 2.
During his time on Blue Peter, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography credits him with coining two quotations now prominent in British popular culture: the line 'And now for something completely different' – later taken up by, and usually attributed to, Monty Python – was used as a segue to different parts of the programme; and 'Here's one I made earlier' was used during the construction of models on the show, and has since been adopted by nearly all subsequent presenters on Blue Peter.
- Alistair McGown, "Trace, Christopher Leonard (1933–1992)", Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, Oct 2005; online edn, May 2006 accessed 10 June 2006
| Preceded by Christopher Trace was the first male Blue Peter presenter |
Blue Peter Presenter No. 1 1958-67 |
Succeeded by Peter Purves |
