Born as Michael Terence Aspel on 12 January 1933 in Battersea, London (UK). He attended Emanuel School after passing his eleven-plus in 1944 and served as a conscript of the National Service, in the ranks of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, from 1951 to 1953.
After this, he took up a job at the David Morgan department store in Cardiff until 1955, before working as newsreader for the BBC in Cardiff in 1957. By the early sixties, he had become one of four regular newsreaders on BBC national television, along with Richard Baker, Robert Dougall and Corbet Woodall. At the BBC he began presenting a number of other programmes such as the series Come Dancing, Crackerjack, Ask Aspel, and the Miss World beauty contest, which he covered 14 times.
In 1969 and 1976 he hosted the BBC’s ‘A Song for Europe’ contest and provided the UK commentary twice at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 and 1976, also presenting the contest previews. He also had a regular joke slot on the Kenny Everett radio show on Capital Radio, and guest-starred twice on The Goodies, appearing as himself, notably in the episode ‘Kitten Kong’, which won the Silver Rose at the Montreux Light Entertainment Festival.
In the 1970s and 1980s he presented popular ITV programmes such as ‘Give Us a Clue’, ‘Child’s Play’ and ‘The 6 O’Clock Show’. He was also the host of the chat show Aspel & Company, which ran in the 1980s and 1990s on ITV. Aspel was featured on ‘This is Your Life’ in 1980, and when host Eamonn Andrews died in 1987 he became presenter of the programme until its run ended in 2003. In 1993, Aspel became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to broadcasting”, and has been voted TV Times and Variety Club Television Personality of the Year.
Aspel has been married three times and has seven children.
References
- Michael Aspel. Wikipedia, retrieved 17 September 2017.
