The author and broadcaster, Bamber Gascoigne, is recalled in the public mind mainly for introducing the swots’ TV panel game University Challenge for 25 years. He always looked younger and stranger than most of the contestants. Since he stopped presenting it in 1987, and handed over to Jeremy Paxman, he’s only watched it three times. “I never looked at it when I was on it, and I rarely watch television as early as 8.30,” he says. He is devoting his time to writing a world history on his website, www.history-world.net, and says that he has written more than a million words, but with them being on the net, nobody knows. “We get over 200 million hits a year, but I haven’t found a way of making any money at all from it. But I’m working on it . . .” He will celebrate his birthday very quietly with Christina, his wife. Bamber Gascoigne is 71 today. RGT
Lady Barbirolli, musician, 95; Nastassja Kinski, actress, 45; Dr Desmond Morris, zoologist, writer and broadcaster, 78; Sir Donald Murray, a Lord Justice of Appeal on the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland, 1989-93, 83; Sam Soames, senior partner, Herbert Smith, 1957-71, 100; Professor Jane Somerville, cardiologist, 73; John Wadham, deputy chairman, Independent Police Complaints Commission, 54; the Right Rev J. A. Ward, Archbishop of Cardiff, 1983-2001, 77.