Bamber Gascoigne, the scion of an aristocratic and military family who found fame as the quizmaster of University Challenge and hosted the show for 25 years, has died at the age of 87.
Gascoigne, the originator of catchphrases such as “your starter for 10”, died at home in Richmond, south-west London, after a short illness.
He was the first host of University Challenge when the cerebral quizshow began airing in 1962, and remained in the quizmaster’s chair for 913 episodes until 1987.
Gascoigne was credited with the show’s unexpected success. Although the questions were often far beyond the knowledge of most viewers, his affable manner appealed to audiences, who adopted his hallmark phrases into everyday discourse.
Seven years after the show ended its run on ITV, it was revived by the BBC with Jeremy Paxman in the chair.
His wife, Christina, said Gascoigne was an “an incredibly generous man and everything he did was pointed towards sharing the gifts of his own life with others”. The couple had had a “fantastic 62 years together full of friends and adventures” and “we never had a quarrel”.
She added: “It was 50 years ago that he hosted University Challenge, but that is what everyone remembers. That and his limitless thirst for knowledge, which he retained like a sponge.”
The actor Stephen Fry tweeted: “Oh no, not Bamber. He was so kind and warm to us students who sat nervously at those desks. Such an elegant, intelligent man.”
Referring to a sketch for the comedy series The Young Ones, Fry added: “He was charming about Griff’s [the actor Griff Rhys Jones] recreation of him as Bambi in The Young Ones too.”
Monty Don, the broadcaster and gardening writer, wrote that Gascoigne was “for my generation an iconic TV figure”.
Gascoigne came from a long line of top brass military men and landowners. His great-grandfathers included a marquess and a baron, and one uncle was a prime minister of Northern Ireland in the 1960s. His father, Derek Ernest Frederick Orby Gascoigne, was a lieutenant-colonel.
Bamber Gascoigne was a pupil at Eton and, after national service, studied English literature at Cambridge. He became a theatre critic for the Observer and the Spectator before being chosen to host University Challenge.
He also produced television documentaries, wrote novels and was a trustee of arts organisations including the National and Tate galleries, the Royal Opera House and the National Trust. He was appointed a CBE in 2018.
In 2014, Gascoigne unexpectedly inherited West Horsley Place, – a 15th-century stately home in Surrey once owned by Henry VIII – via his aunt the Duchess of Roxburghe.
Instead of selling the crumbing 50-room house, Gascoigne and his wife took on its £10m renovation, financed by selling much of its contents, and turned it into an arts centre. A 750-seat opera house was built in the grounds to house Grange Park Opera.
Wasfi Kani, the founder of Grange Park Opera, said: “Bamber’s exceptional philanthropy is as extraordinary as the story of how Grange Park Opera came to build the opera house in his garden…
“Every step of the way Bamber has been like a father to Grange Park Opera: advising, enthusing, encouraging. The opera house is his. Everyone who crosses its threshold must thank this amazing man.”
