John Benson (announcer)

John Benson (1928–1995) was a British television announcer, best known for saying "And now ... from Norwich, it's the quiz of the week" at the start of each edition of the UK's long-running Sale of the Century, which ran on ITV from 1971 to 1983. In the early-1970s John Benson also hosted on a rota basis 'Late Night Extra' on BBC Radio 2 with Tony Luke and entertainment news broadcaster Julian Bray.[1]

Although John Benson spent most of his career working as an announcer for Anglia Television, he was also the chief staff announcer for ABC Television between 1957 and 1966. He even compered one edition of ABC Television's 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' (a programme featuring current pop stars of the day from the UK and the USA miming to their current hits that went out at 5.50pm every Saturday), to compete with the rather staid BBC's 'Juke Box Jury'). He was also a relief announcer for Rediffusion London and freelanced at Westward, Thames and TVS.[2] During the 1960s, he presented the weekly Top Twenty Show, a one-hour British pop music charts count-down broadcast in Northern Germany every Saturday on the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service).

Amongst his other game show credits are Strike It Lucky, Gambit, What's My Line and the long-running 3-2-1. He also acted as the in-vision announcer and "comedic foil" to Jonathan Ross on The Last Resort, an irreverent, late night talk show (broadcast on Channel 4) modelled on America's Late Show with David Letterman. He also made sporadic appearances as an actor in shows such as the BBC sitcom, Birds of a Feather and Cilla, with Cilla Black.

He died in Norfolk in 1995 at the age of 67.