Desmond Carrington
Desmond Herbert Carrington was a British broadcaster and actor whose career spanned 75 years. He was best known for his weekly show on BBC Radio 2 which aired for 35 years, from 4 October 1981 until his final broadcast on 28 October 2016. He appeared in such films as Calamity the Cow and also acted on TV, where he became known for his role as Dr. Anderson in Emergency Ward 10. He was born in Bromley, Kent, England and lived in Perth, Scotland from 1995 until his death.
Career
Carrington's first professional 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 radio station in Colombo, Ceylon.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, which starred a young Phil Collins. With Spencer Hale, Carrington presented Movie Go Round on the BBC Light Programme on Sunday afternoons in the 1950s.
Carrington's first show on BBC Radio 2 called All Time Greats ran from 4 October 1981 to 29 August 2004. It was broadcast for two hours every Sunday from 1pm to 3pm. Although initially pre-recorded and broadcast from a BBC studio, his first live broadcast from his home in Perthshire was on 31 August 1997, which 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. His second show on the network, The Music Goes Round, ran from 31 August 2004 until his final broadcast on 28 October 2016, and originally aired in an hourly slot on a Tuesday evening, from 7pm to 8pm, until it was moved to Friday evenings commencing on 9 April 2010. Both shows used a usual weekly theme of music, an occasional special 50s and musical editions. 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 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.