Desmond Carrington

Career

Carrington's first professional stage appearance was in 1942, when he played Cockney schoolboy Roberts in a stage adaptation of James Hilton's novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, with Noel Johnson, as Mr. Chips – Johnson was the radio voice of Dick Barton. Carrington was conscripted into the army a year later, being commissioned into the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. At the end of World War II, he joined a British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) radio station in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

He returned to the UK a few years later and worked as a radio producer and acted on TV, where he became known for his role as Dr. Anderson in Emergency – Ward 10. In 1949 he appeared as Ken in The People at No. 19, a short public information film warning of the potentially tragic effects of venereal disease on family life. In 1957 he starred in two of the thirteen A Case For Dr. Morelle radio shows, with Cecil Parker as the lead, and later appeared as Uncle Jim in the Children's Film Foundation film Calamity the Cow (1967), which starred a young Phil Collins. With Spencer Hale, Carrington presented Movie Go Round on the BBC Light Programme (now Radio 2) on Sunday afternoons in the 1950s.

Carrington's radio show on BBC Radio 2 entitled All Time Greats began on 4 October 1981. It was broadcast for two hours every Sunday from 1pm. Although initially pre-recorded and broadcast from a BBC studio, his first live broadcast from his home in Perthshire was on 31 August 1997, this was the day that Diana, Princess of Wales, died and Carrington agreed that it would be inappropriate to use the pre-recorded show on that day. In 2004 it was moved to an hourly slot on a Tuesday evening, and a few years later to a Friday night. The show was called 'The Music Goes Round' with a usual weekly theme of music, an occasional special 50s night and musical nights. He introduced every show with the greeting "Evening all, from home in Perthshire" and then always ended his show with "Bye just now!" and "...of course, thank you for having us [the "us" emphasised] at your place" not forgetting a reference to his cat, "Golden Paws" Sam. Carrington used his personal collection of some 80,000 CDs, LPs and 78s. When he retired in 2016 the show was still attracting more than 800,000 listeners.

Honours

He was awarded the Gold Badge of Merit in 1989 by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and he was voted British Radio Personality of the Year in 1991.

Retirement

On his show on 30 September 2016, Carrington confirmed his intention to hang up his headphones after three decades on the airwaves and presented his last show on 28 October 2016. He opened his last show with the same song that had opened the programme in 1981, "Up, Up and Away" by the Johnny Mann Singers, and closed it with Mel Tormé's "That's All". He thanked listeners, without whom, he said "the whole thing would have been quite pointless". Carrington was praised by BBC Director General Tony Hall who said:

Desmond has made a huge contribution to BBC Radio as part of his remarkable 70-year career. He is a natural broadcaster who exudes great charm, and his weekly programme brings joy to listeners both at home and around the world. On behalf of everyone at Radio 2, the BBC and all of his millions of listeners, I'd like to thank him for his incredible service and wish him well.

Death

Carrington died on 1 February 2017 at the age of 90. His death was announced on BBC Radio 2's Jo Whiley Show and it was stated that he had been diagnosed with both cancer and Alzheimer's disease. His partner and producer Dave Aylott said he had died peacefully. A pre-arranged tribute programme, Desmond Carrington – All Time Great, was broadcast by BBC Radio 2 on the evening of his death.