BARRY NORMAN

(21 August 1933 - 30 June 2017)

The British journalist and author Barry Norman, who has died from lung cancer at the age of 83, was best known as a television presenter of the BBC’s Film programme, which he hosted from 1972 to 1998. His opinions usually ran straight down the middle of the road, perhaps as a way of appealing to a wide BBC1 audience, while he mastered the art of pinning a film down with more description than criticism. He was engaging and not without charm, although he managed to ruffle the feathers of Robert De Niro, John Wayne and Mel Gibson, among others. His father was Leslie Norman, the film producer and director at Ealing Studios, but initially Barry avoided the cinema as a career by studying shipping management. However, he soon entered journalism at the Kensington News, and then worked on papers in South Africa. On his return he wrote for the Daily Sketch, Daily Mail, The Observer and The Guardian. He wasn’t the first presenter of the BBC Film programme (Irma Kurtz, Joan Bakewell, Frederic Raphael, Jackie Gillott and producer Iain Johnstone came before him) but he settled in well and stayed for 26 years, with time off to present the BBC’s Omnibus arts magazine, and Radio 4’s Today programme, among other radio shows. From 1998, Norman worked for Sky television (for three years) and later contributed to Radio Times. He wrote books on film and cricket and one of his autobiographies was called And Why Not?, a reference to an expression he never actually used except via impersonations by Rory Bremner. Barry Norman was honoured by BAFTA in 1981 with the Richard Dimbleby Award and was made a CBE in 1998. He was voted Best Dressed Man of 1985 and in 1987 became Pipesmoker of the Year. He also had his own brand of pickled onions. He married his wife, writer Diana Narracott, in 1957, and they had two daughters, the writer Samantha Norman and the actress Emma Norman. Diana died in 2011.

MICHAEL DARVELL