Christopher Leonard Trace (March 21, 1933 – September 5, 1992) was a British actor and television presenter, most famous for his nine year stint as a presenter of the BBC One children's programme Blue Peter. March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the oldest television station in the world. ... For the Canadian 1980s New Wave band of the same name, see Blue Peter (band). ...

Career

After a period in the army and a somewhat desultory acting career – his greatest screen role being Charlton Heston's body double in Ben-Hur – Trace became the very first presenter of Blue Peter on 16 October 1958, and stayed with the programme until until 24 July 1967. Charlton Heston on the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C Charlton Heston (born October 4, 1923) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor noted for heroic roles and his long involvement in political issues. ... Ben-Hur is a 1959 film directed by William Wyler, and is the most recent and most popular, live-action film version of Lew Wallaces novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880). ... October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in Leap years). ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ...

On his departure, Trace was first involved in a failed film venture, before returning to the BBC, first on local television and then the acclaimed programme Nationwide. He later had a slot on BBC Radio Norwich. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, sometimes also known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, founded in 1922. ... Nationwide was a BBC current affairs television series broadcast on BBC One each weekday following the main evening news. ...

By the 1970s, he had retired from the media, but returned to celebrate Blue Peter’s 20th anniversary in 1978. In the 1990s, he briefly returned to the BBC to host Are You Sitting Comfortably? on Radio 2. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

Quotations

During his time on Blue Peter, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography credits him with coining two quotations now prominent in British popular culture: the line 'And now for something completely different' – later taken up by, and usually attributed to, Monty Python – was used as a segue to different parts of the programme; and 'Here's one I made earlier' was used during the construction of models on the show, and has since been adopted by nearly all subsequent presenters on Blue Peter. The Dictionary of National Biography (or DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history. ... The Monty Python troupe in 1969. ...

Sources

• Alistair McGown, "Trace, Christopher Leonard (1933–1992)", Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, Oct 2005; online edn, May 2006 accessed 10 June 2006