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Denis Mostyn Norden, (born 6 February 1922) is a retired English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme ''Take It From Here'' with Frank Muir. Muir and Norden remained associated for more than 50 years: after they stopped collaborating on scripts, they appeared regularly together on radio panel programmes ''My Word!'' and ''My Music''. Norden wrote scripts for Hollywood films. He also presented television programmes on ITV for many years, including the nostalgia quiz ''Looks Familiar'' and blooper shows ''It'll Be Alright on the Night'' and ''Laughter File''. He retired in 2006. ==Early life and career== Norden was born in Mare Street, Hackney in London's East End, and educated at the City of London School where he was a contemporary of Kingsley Amis. Upon leaving school, he worked as a stagehand, moved into cinema management by the age of 17 and organised variety shows. His writing career began in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, when he wrote for troop shows. Whilst preparing for one of these shows in 1945, Norden, accompanied by fellow performers Eric Sykes and Ron Rich, went to a nearby prison camp in search of stage lighting; the camp turned out to be the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which had recently been liberated by the Allies. Norden, Sykes and Rich organised a food collection amongst their comrades to feed the starving camp inmates. After the war, Norden wrote material for comedian Dick Bentley, before meeting Frank Muir (who wrote for comic actor Jimmy Edwards) in 1947. Muir and Norden's first joint venture was a radio show for both performers, ''Take It From Here'', which they scripted from 1948 to 1959. They went on to write many successful radio and television scripts, including ''Whack-O!'' (1956–60) and three series of ''Faces of Jim'' (1961–1963) which were vehicles for Jimmy Edwards. They also wrote the satirical sketch ''Balham, Gateway to the South'' for the BBC Third Programme. The sketch, which had originally been broadcast in 1948 as part of a comedy series called ''The Third Division'' and which featured actor Robert Beatty, was later performed by Peter Sellers for his LP, ''The Best of Sellers'' (1959). In the early 1960s Muir and Norden wrote the sitcom ''Brothers in Law'', an early series featuring Richard Briers, and its spin-off ''Mr Justice Duncannon''. In 1964, their writing partnership ended, as Muir moved into management with the BBC. Over the next several years, Norden, who had long had a fascination with Hollywood, wrote the scripts for several films, including ''Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell'' and ''The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom''. Although he was no longer writing with Muir, the two regularly appeared together on panel shows ''My Word!'' (1956–1990) and ''My Music'' (1966–1993), first on radio then TV. In 1965, Norden wrote, narrated and starred in a featurette jointly made by the James Bond producers and the Ford Motor Company. The colour short, entitled "A Child's Guide to Blowing up a Motor Car", went behind the scenes of an exploding car stunt being filmed for ''Thunderball''. Norden takes a young relative on a day out to a film set, where they meet several stars and production team members, but not Sean Connery. Lost for many years, it is now available on the 'Ultimate Edition' DVD of ''Thunderball'', as released in late 2006.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''A Child's Guide to Blowing up a Motor Car'' )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Denis Norden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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