Gyles Brandreth Biography
Gyles Brandreth is a former politician and English broadcaster who has worked as a television host, playwright, journalist, novelist, and publisher.
How old is Gyles Brandreth? – Age
He is 75 years old as of 8 March 2022. He was born in 1948 in Wuppertal, Germany. His real name is Gyles Daubeney Brandreth.
Gyles Brandreth Family – Education
Brandreth was born in Wuppertal, West Germany, where his father, Charles Brandreth, was an Allied Control Commission legal officer. At the age of three, he went to London with his parents and attended the Lycée Français in South Kensington and Bedales School in Petersfield, Hampshire, where he met his buddy Simon Cadell.
Brandreth attended New College, Oxford, where he met Rick Stein and studied Modern History and Modern Languages.During his time at Oxford, he headed the Oxford campus Dramatic Society and served as President of the Oxford Union in the Michaelmas term of 1969. He was also a regular contributor to the campus journal Isis. He was dubbed “Oxford’s Lord High Everything Else” in a contemporaneous periodical. According to Christopher Hitchens, Brandreth “set out to make himself into a Ken Tynan.” I was dressed in a cloak.
Gyles Brandreth Wife
At Oxford, Brandreth met his future wife, Michèle Brown. The pair chose to hold a “quiet wedding” five years later, with Brown working as a television reporter and Brandreth in the theater. On June 8, 1973, they married in Marylebone Registry Office, with actor Simon Cadell, Brandreth’s best friend from school, as a witness. Since 1986, the pair has lived in Barnes, southwest London.
Gyles Brandreth Children
They have three children, one of which is Aphra, a former Richmond Conservative councilor. She was the Conservative Women’s Organisation’s vice chair and the party’s unsuccessful candidate for Kingston and Surbiton in the 2019 United Kingdom general election.
Gyles Brandreth Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $5 Million.
Gyles Brandreth Gogglebox
In 2019, Brandreth co-hosted the first season of Celebrity Gogglebox with Sheila Hancock. Gogglebox is a Channel 4 reality television show developed by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander, and Tim Harcourt. The programme follows families and groups of friends from throughout the United Kingdom as they observe and react to the previous week’s television from the comfort of their own homes. The first series premiered on March 7, 2013, and the show is presently on its twenty-first season, which will conclude on February 24, 2023. Caroline Aherne narrated the show from its inception until her death in July 2016, when Craig Cash took over.
Gyles Brandreth Books
He has published adult and children’s books about Scrabble, words, puzzles, and humor. He penned an authorized biography of actor John Gielgud as well as lipogrammic Shakespeare reworks. He authored screenplays for Dear Ladies, a television show starring Hinge and Bracket, in the 1980s. Zipp!, his theatrical performance, was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival and had a brief run in the West End.
He published journals from his time as a politician between 1990 and 1997 in 1999. Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles and Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair were both released in 2004. After the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021, Brandreth wrote, “The duke showed me great friendliness over 40 years, but royalty offers you friendliness, not friendship, and you have to remember the difference.” The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries is a collection of seven works of historical fiction published by him. He has created and performed in several comic one-man shows.
Gyles Brandreth Just a Minute
On the radio, he frequently appears on BBC Radio 4’s Just a Minute. Since 2021, Sue Perkins has hosted the BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game Just a Minute. With a few exceptions, it was presented by Nicholas Parsons for more than 50 years. Following Parsons’ death in 2020, Perkins took over as host permanently, beginning with the 87th series. Just a Minute debuted on Radio 4 on December 22, 1967, three months after the station’s debut. In 2003, the program received a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award.
Gyles Brandreth Podcast
Brandreth began co-hosting a podcast called Something Rhymes With Purple with friend and colleague Susie Dent in April 2019. The podcast examines facets of the English language such as the origins of historic or unique terms, as well as the origins of popular phrases and sayings.
Gyles Brandreth Jumpers
The bright and witty jumpsuits that Brandreth has created and worn throughout his career are what make him famous. He has expressed on the BBC that “it’s all I’m truly known for.” Brandreth collaborated with George Hostler, an artist and knitwear designer, to create hundreds of jumper designs for books they wrote and published under their knitwear label, Gyles & George.
Brandreth claims to have a jumper for almost every occasion and has a room in his London home just for them. To give some examples models: he has a weaved jumper embellished with a green frog that he has worn for meetings with sovereigns (Philip and Charles); He has worn sweaters with crowns and corgis on other royal occasions. He has talked about rail strikes on television while wearing a jumper with a steam locomotive on it. On the day Boris Johnson resigned, he wore a sweater with the words “The End.” Additionally, in his capacity as president of the Association of British Scrabble Players, he wears a jumper with a Scrabble-themed design.
Gyles Brandreth Political Views
From 1992 to 1997, Brandreth was a Conservative MP for the City of Chester. He introduced a private member’s bill that became the Marriage Act of 1994. In 1995, he was assigned to a junior ministerial position as Lord of the Treasury, essentially serving as a whip. In 2001, 2003, and 2005, he reminisced on his legislative experience on BBC radio as Brandreth on Office and The Brandreth Rules.
In the run-up to the September referendum on Scottish independence, Brandreth was one of 200 notable personalities who signed a letter to The Guardian opposing it. In May 2016, Brandreth told The Spectator that he expected to vote for the UK to remain in the European Union in the referendum the following month. Brandreth acknowledged in 2019 that he voted to remain but accepted the referendum outcome and believed that the government needed to “get Brexit done.”