Former BBC presenter Chris Serle has died aged 81.
The TV and radio star worked on programmes throughout the 80s and 90s, and rose to fame on satirical consumer affairs show That’s Life! alongside the likes of Dame Esther Rantzen.
He later presented In at the Deep End and Points of View for the BBC.
Serle was also chaired Radio 4’s Pick of the Week between 1981 and 1988, and was the host of a long-running afternoon show on BBC Radio Bristol.
In the 80s, Serle presented Windmill, showing archived BBC clips on themes including Doctor Who and Blue Peter.
He also appeared on The Computer Programme, which was originally broadcast in 1982, and Monkey Business in the early noughties.
Serle’s first TV appearance came in 1971, where he appeared in eight episodes of Dave Allen at Large.
In a statement, his family told the BBC that Serle was a ‘familiar and cherished figure on British television screens throughout the 1970s and 1980s’.
Serle is survived by his wife Ali, their three children, and two children from a previous marriage.
His family are arranging his funeral and memorial service, with details to be shared in due course.
Several fans have paid tribute on social media with @The_GFP writing: ‘Sad to hear BBC’s Chris Serle has passed at 81 He was on lots of BBC shows when i was growing up in the 70’s & 80’s The Computer Show was probably my fav.’
@Roundthearchive1 wrote: ‘Chris Serle did a terrific job on ‘The Computer Programme’ – at the time an exciting look into what the future might hold and now a fascinating historical document. Well worth rewatching if you were there at the time!’
@Waltydunlop said: ‘Chris Serle is in no small way responsible for feeding an obsession that’s never left me. Difficult to underestimate the impact that simple wee clips show “Windmill” had on me. So many Sunday mornings, bewitched as he introduced *treasure*. Thank you, Chris.’
Broadcaster Matthew Sweet wrote: ‘This is such painful news. Chris was a donnish and delightful giant of a man. He had a shambling diffidence that suited him when he – for instance – performed opera on TV without being able to sing. But I’ll remember the warm & magnanimous silent movie fan, laughing in the dark.’
Actress Judy Matheson said: ‘This is so sad. He was in my 1st theatre company,travelling all over US; when I first went to rehearse in Bristol he & his family put me up. He was such a terrific guy.
‘Further to my last post, a memory with the brilliant Chris Serle, with me in my 1st job with the Bristol Old Vic, on our US tour in the Garden of The Gods in Denver in 1967. He never seemed to age. We were both novices in professional theatre, but Chris became a polymath. R.I.P.’
Dame Esther also paid tribute, telling the PA News agency: ‘I am so very sad to hear that Chris Serle, one of our best loved That’s Life! reporters, has died.
‘He was as nice off camera as he was in the studio on camera – funny, clever, charming, a very versatile presenter.
‘When I first met him he was a producer, but it was clear that he had all the attributes of the best reporters.
‘Viewers and listeners of That’s Life! and the many other radio and television programmes he presented will be equally sad.’
Dame Esther sent her ‘deepest sympathy’ to his friends and family.
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