This Is Your Life article

Paying tribute to Eamonn Andrews yesterday, author Dr Richard Gordon recalled the night when he told the TV man 'balls' on the air and walked out of This Is Your Life. 'I don't suppose Eamonn ever forgot it either, because it gave him the best publicity he's ever had,' said Gordon. 'After that, everyone was always wondering who was going to do it next.' In fact, footballer Danny Blanchflower was the only other person to walk out on Andrews, but it wasn't live. Gordon later relented - under pressure from his wife, he says - and went meekly on the show.

The Times 6 November 1987

Obituary of Mr Eamonn Andrews: A life in broadcasting

Mr Eamonn Andrews, hon. CBE, who died yesterday, at the age of 64, was completely a man of the television age. As sports commentator, quiz chairman, interviewer, and 'host' to show business personalities, he became a national celebrity, not from the exercise of any acquired or traditional expertise but simply by virtue of being himself: charming and apparently unflappable.

He was born on December 19, 1922, the son of a Dublin carpenter. He was educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, Dublin. He was a prize-winning choirboy; and, while still a schoolboy, became All Ireland juvenile boxing champion (middleweight). At the age of 16 he offered himself to Radio Eireann as a boxing commentator, and he was accepted.

He continued as such, giving also commentaries on rugby and soccer, while a clerk in a Dublin insurance company. In addition, he studied acting under Ria Mooney at the Abbey, took part in plays on Radio Eireann, and had his own play, a solemn (and unsuccessful) work entitled The Moon is Black, produced at the Peacock. All this became too much for an insurance clerk, and when Andrews became the radio critic of the Irish Independent he decided to leave the firm. His programme of talks and interviews, Microphone Parade, ran for almost three years without a break.

English audiences first met him in 1949, when he toured England with the Joe Loss Band Show as chairman of a 'Double or Nothing' quiz. In the following year, he took over from Stewart MacPherson as the presenter of the successful BBC quiz programme, Ignorance is Bliss. Over the ensuing years his work, apart from television boxing commentaries, was in sound radio, and remarkably varied; he was involved not only in Sports Report but also in A Book at Bedtime, Housewives' Choice, and in interviewing celebrities.

It was in July 1951 that his television career proper began, as chairman of the panel game What's My Line? Four years later he began to run his own programme This Is Your Life - 'the unofficial honours list' - which, perhaps because of its kind-hearted, sentimental approach to its subjects, their lives and achievements, became enormously popular.

The family and friends were in on the secret; it was the 'victim' and the audience who were in the dark until the last minute when Eamonn, clutching the big red book with the gold embossed inscription THIS IS YOUR LIFE, would pounce and utter to so-and-so, brogue in cheek, those immortal words; 'dis is yur loife'.

The life, a naked biography compressed into half-an-hour, was embellished by anecdotes from all manner of acquaintance, with Aunt Ada flown in from the other side of the world for the finale, copious tears tearing down her cheeks. Early on, Eamonn himself had the red book turned on him.

When he was not pouncing he was also doing for the BBC, among other things, the children's programmes Crackerjack! and Playbox. He four times won awards as 'TV Personality of the Year'.

In 1960 he became chairman of Radio Eireann and helped to set up Irish television; but this did not interrupt his work on the other side of the Irish Sea.

In 1964 his contract with the BBC expired, and the Corporation took it upon itself to terminate This Is Your Life. A disapproving Andrews moved to Independent Television as 'link man' for Saturday afternoon's The World of Sport and as host to show business and other celebrities in The Eamonn Andrews Show, which, in the course of four years, slowly discovered that a Sunday evening audience was ready to accept some serious conversation as well as professional flippancy and show business gossip. The show ran throughout the 1970s and was the forerunner of similar 'chat shows'.

The re-organization of Independent Television in 1968 took Andrews away from sport to become the presenter of a regular week-night current affairs programme, Today - a job which he did for ten years. This Is Your Life was then resuscitated, and it ran and ran, attracting huge audiences without fail.

In 1984 Andrews' career came full circle with the revival, under his chairmanship, of the show that first made his name, What's My Line?

It was possible to watch Eamonn Andrews carefully for a long time without noticing the professional skill with which he worked, guiding a conversation, drawing none of the limelight to himself. It is not to do him justice simply to say that he had 'the gift of the gab'; what he did was to imbue his guests with a confidence which allowed them to shine through. In this he showed an unobtrusive professionalism which seemed to belong to his character and to the world of television, so that it would be entirely meaningless in any other world.

The remarkable affection which television viewers felt for Eamonn Andrews was based, however, not only on the skill of his work. It grew, too, from his genuine interest in, and friendliness for, people. These qualities made it easy for his audience to identify with him and to feel that he had taken them with him to meet and share the world of gorgeous actresses, brilliant comedians and cheerfully ebullient politicians.

Andrews was a man of considerable business interests. He was also a devout Roman Catholic, and received a Papal knighthood in 1964 for his charitable works. His autobiography, This is My Life (1963), reads like an extended script for the programme by which he was most famous and from which the book adapts its title. A further book of reminiscences, Surprise of Your Life, appeared in 1978. He never relinquished his Irish citizenship.

He married, in 1951, Grainne Bourke, who survives him with their adopted children; a son and two daughters.

The Times 6 November 1987

Death of the man with the red book

By LYNDA MURDIN, Arts Correspondent

Eamonn Andrews, the television personality and compere of This Is Your Life, died yesterday. He was aged 64.

Mr Andrews, a 6ft 1in former boxer, had been ill in recent months, losing two stones in weight. On Monday he entered London's private Cromwell Hospital for tests for what he described as a mystery virus.

However, it turned out to be progressive deterioration of the myocardium, the main heart muscle.

Heart specialists said yesterday that this type of disease did not normally result in so sudden a death, but this could have been caused by an associated rhythm problem.

The Cromwell Hospital said that Mr Andrews had been admitted for investigation and was expected to be discharged within a week. 'But the illness got the better of him and he died at 2.15am.'

His wife, Grainne, had been with him at the hospital but left shortly before his death. Their three adopted children, Fergal, aged 23, Emma, aged 26, and Niamh, aged 19, travelled to London later. They were said to be 'extremely shocked and distressed'.

His funeral will be in the city of his birth, Dublin, next week.

Last night many people paid tribute to the professionalism of the smooth-talking television host who with his famous red book became as much an institution as the late Roy Plomley and his desert island.

Mr Bill Cotton, managing director of BBC Television, described Mr Andrews as 'one of the pillars of popular broadcasting in this country'.

He said: 'He was a man who cared deeply for his family, his friends, and his work. The public recognised this instinctively and that was the secret of his success.'

Mr Andrews became a household name in the early days of BBC television.

He hosted the popular Crackerjack and What's My Line? but it was This Is Your Life, started by the BBC in 1955, that really caught the public's imagination.

The show lasted for nine years and some 256 programmes with the BBC and was then revived in 1969 by Thames Television. Some 500 more were made, one featuring comedian Jimmy Cricket was screened just hours before Mr Andrews died.

Next Wednesday, the scheduled This Is Your Life will be replaced by Headliners, a new quiz programme hosted by Derek Jameson.

Thames Television officials have yet to decide whether to screen several This Is Your Life programmes.

The Guardian 11 November 1987

UK News in Brief: Eamonn Andrews buried in Ireland

The president of the Irish Republic, Dr Patrick Hillery, led mourners yesterday at the funeral of Eamonn Andrews, who died aged 64 in London last week.

He was buried near his home at Portmarnock on Dublin Bay.

The Times 11 November 1987

Dublin's farewell to Eamonn Andrews

By: JOHN COONEY

Eamonn Andrews, who once said that he could not turn his back on Ireland because Dublin had made him, was buried yesterday in his native city after a simple church service attended by his family and hundreds of Dubliners.

On a cloudless day he was buried in a hillside plot in Balgriffin cemetery near his mansion in the village of Portmarnock.

His youngest daughter, Niamh, dressed in black like her mother Grainne and sister Emma, wept at the graveside.

Emma and Niamh clutched each other, their brother Fergal held his mother's arms as the coffin bearing five roses was lowered into the grave.

In accordance with his last wishes, television and show business personalities were not present. A memorial service will be held in London this month.

Hundreds of Dubliners attended the requiem Mass in the village church of Portmarnock to pay their last respects to the Irishman who became a star of British television but who regarded himself as a 'Dub.'

Mr Andrews, who died in a London hospital last Thursday, aged 64, worked in London from Monday to Thursday and lived in Dublin the rest of the week.

His status was marked by the presence of Dr Patrick Hillery, President of Ireland, and by the many wreaths from former colleagues, show business people and the many charities he supported.

Mr Jack Lynch, a former Irish Prime Minister, said: 'He was a modest man and a great ambassador for Ireland. He gave an image of the Irish to Britain that others might not have given.'

The Stage 12 November 1987

Eamonn Andrews – master of media

EAMONN ANDREWS, who died on November 5 aged 64 as a result of a deteriorating heart condition, was a master of all the post-war media and in addition built up a string of business interests which made him an important figure in the entertainment and communications business on both sides of the Irish Sea.

He was nevertheless from a modest family background, his father being a Dublin carpenter, who sent his son to the Christian Brothers School in Synge Street, where he became a prizewinning choirboy. While at school he began to show an interest in boxing, turning into the All-Ireland juvenile middleweight champion, which gave him the initial step into broadcasting. He became a boxing commentator on Radio Eireann at the age of 16, later adding other sporting commentaries to his portfolio, and at the same time endeavouring to hold down a job as an insurance clerk. He also showed an interest in acting, studying for a time at the Abbey, Dublin, appearing in radio plays and even writing a play which was produced at the Peacock. He had his own programme on Radio Eireann and was for a time radio critic of the Irish Independent.

So he had a lot of experience to offer when he came to England in 1949, initially at the invitation of Joe Loss, with whom he toured in variety with a quiz as part of Loss' band show. By the early fifties, however, he was soundly established on BBC radio, chairing Ignorance Is Bliss, becoming principal boxing commentator and turning up on all kinds of programmes as interviewer and disc jockey.

He moved into television in 1951 as chairman of What's My Line? followed in 1955 with This Is Your Life, and he also took part in many other programmes, including a long association with children's TV. Even when he became chairman of Radio Eireann in 1960 and was instrumental in the setting up of Irish television, he continued to work for BBC TV, and he had maintained close links with his home country, setting up a company with interests in radio, recording and films. This later encompassed production of shows and ownership of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.

When his BBC contract expired in 1964 he switched to ITV, becoming link man for The World of Sport and hosting his own chat show, which was one of the first of its kind. Reorganisation of ITV in 1968 took him away from sport to become the presenter of the current affairs programme Today, and eventually both What's My Line? and This Is Your Life found a place on independent television.

His varied experience turned him into a superb professional, probably one of the greatest all-rounders ever to appear on television. He was at home with politicians, diplomats, sportsmen and show business personalities, even though his own interests continued to lie mainly with the sporting and entertainment aspects of his career. The Irish side of his business interests suffered a severe blow at the beginning of 1984 with the failure of a project to convert a ship moored on the Liffey into a night club. This incurred losing control of the Gaiety Theatre and severe diminution of his Irish show business interests.

His widow Grainne is the daughter of a noted Irish theatre personality, the late Lorcan Bourke, who assisted Andrews with the Irish side of his activities, and they had three adopted children. A devout Roman Catholic, he was a strong supporter of the Catholic Stage Guild and was awarded a Papal knighthood for charitable works in 1964.

The Times 24 November 1987

ITV looks to drama in ratings fight

BYLINE: LYNDA MURDIN, Arts Correspondent

Nine new drama series costing a total of £20 million have been announced by ITV for its forthcoming winter schedule, as part of an attempt to regain its position in the ratings.

The ITV companies reached what was probably their lowest ratings last winter and spring in the war for audiences, Mr Greg Dyke, controller of programmes at London Weekend Television, admitted yesterday.

Saturday nights in particular are to be given an injection of material other than frothy light entertainment.

The new drama series, running from January to the end of March, including Hannay, starring Robert Powell as the John Buchan hero, London's Burning, Jack Rosenthal's television play about firemen now developed into a series, and Hard Cases, in which John McEnery leads a team of probation officers.

As well as drama, the 'big movie' will also return to Saturday evenings, beginning with three James Bond films, starring Roger Moore.

This Is Your Life is also to return to the screen. The three programmes completed by Eamonn Andrews before his death this month are to be shown during a series of classic examples of the show.

Mr David Elstein, director of programmes at Thames Television, said it had been decided to run the three programmes after consultation with Mr Andrews's widow.

The Guardian 8 December 1987

Memorial mass for Eamonn Andrews held in Westminster Cathedral

The Beverley Sisters arriving at the memorial mass for broadcaster Eamonn Andrews at Westminster Cathedral yesterday.

Leading the congregation of almost 2,000 people, including many from showbusiness, television and radio, was his widow, Grainne, with daughters Emma and Niamh and son Fergal.

In a homily to the former presenter of TV's This Is Your Life, who died after a short illness last month, Cardinal Hume said: 'His supreme and certainly unconscious achievement was to let the world see the kind of generous face of one of Ireland's finest sons: open, smiling and sympathetic.'

The Times 8 December 1987

Court and Social: Mr Eamonn Andrews

The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster was the principal celebrant and gave an address at a Requiem Mass for Mr Eamonn Andrews in Westminster Cathedral yesterday.

The Right Rev Crispian Hollis, Mgr Michael Connolly, Mgr Vincent Berry and Mgr George Leonard were the other con-celebrants. Mr Lionel Jeffries, Chairman of the Catholic Stage Guild, Mr Fergal Andrews, son, and Mr Richard Dunn, Managing Director of Thames Television, read the lessons. Father Michael Hollings read from the Gospel.

Miss Emma Andrews, daughter, Mr Cliff Morgan, Mr Otto Herschen, Mr Philip Jones, Mr Malcolm Morris and Miss Niamh Andrews, daughter, said the bidding prayers. The Ambassador of the Republic of Ireland also gave an address. Among others present were:

Mrs Andrews (widow) and other members of the family; Mrs Andrew O'Rourke, the Earl of Longford, Viscount Tonypandy, Viscount Moore, Lady Dunsany, Lord Forte, Lord Revelstoke, Lord and Lady Miles, Sir John and Lady Mills, Sir David Orr, Sir Ian Trethowan (chairman, Thames Television) with Sir John Read (deputy chairman); Sir Georg Solti, Sir Gordon Reece, Sir Hugh and the Hon Lady Dundas, the Mayor of Dublin.

Miss Katie Boyle, Mr Val Doonican, Mr and Mrs Deryck Guyler, Miss Barbara Kelly, Mr Henry Cooper (Boxing Writers' Association) and Mrs Cooper, Mr Brian Tesler (Film and Television Producers' Guild), Mr Leslie Crowther (Variety Club of Great Britain) and Mrs Crowther, Miss Bernadette Greevy, the Rev Daniel Cronin, Mr David Hill, Mr James O'Donnell, the Rev Norbert Fernandes, Canon Oliver Kelly, Canon Peter Ball, the Rev Richard Truss, Mr Richard Duggan, Mr Kevin McCourt, Prince Azamat Guirey, Mr Conor Crowley, Mr Robert Shaw.

Mr M J Hussey (chairman, BBC) with Mr Bill Cotton (managing director, Television, BBC); the Rev Michael Hurst-Bannister (senior chaplain, Actors' Church Union), Mr Cyril Conway (treasurer, Catholic Stage Guild), Mr George Hoare (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Miss Phyllis Rounce (International Artistes), Mr Brian Moore (ITV Sport), Mr D Nicholas (ITN) and Mrs Nicholas, Mr Frank Comerford (The Stage), Mr J Sheeny (editor, Catholic Herald) and Mrs Sheehy, Mr Bill Shine (Savage Club), Mr Peter Dimmock (American Broadcasting Companies), Mr Kevin Grant (managing director and editor-in-chief, The Universe), Mr A J J Bartlett (Providence (Row) Night Refuge and Home).

Mr Jeffrey Archer, Mr Ronald Allison, Mr Michael Aspel, Miss Jean Anderson, Miss Jean Alexander, Mr Jarvis Astaire, Miss Faith Brown, Mr and Mrs Lionel Blair, the Beverley Sisters, Mr and Mrs Acker Bilk, Mr and Mrs Robin Bailey, Mr Harold Berens, Mr Ronnie Corbett, Mr Jimmy Cricket, Mr Christopher Cazenove, Miss Wendy Craig, Mr and Mrs Bryan Cowgill, Mr Frank Carson, Mr and Mrs John Conteh, Mr Ray Cooney, Mr Cyril Cusack, Mr Michael Denison and Miss Dulcie Gray, Miss Gabrielle Drake, Miss Nyree Dawn Porter, Mr Dickie Davies, Mr Jim Davidson, Mr Windsor Davies, Mr Charlie Drake, Mr and Mrs Noel Edmonds, Mr Roy Fewins, Mr Paul Fox, Mr Keith Fordyce.

Mr Michael Grade, Mr Lew Gardner, Miss Kitty Godfree, Mr Larry Grayson, Miss Julie Goodyear, Mr George Gale, Miss Nerys Hughes, Mr Russell Harty, Mr Stuart Hall, Miss Gloria Hunniford, Miss Patricia Hayes, Mrs Dickie Henderson, Mr and Mrs Rolf Harris, Mrs Sydney Harrison, Mr Jeremy Isaacs, Mr Richard Ingrams, Mr Derek Jameson, Mrs Lionel Jeffries, Mr and Mrs David Jacobs, Mr Jimmy Jewel, Mr and Mrs Brian Johnston, Mr Teddy Johnson and Miss Pearl Carr, Mr Roy Kinnear, Mr and Mrs Laddie Lucas, Mr and Mrs Joe Loss, Mr Danny La Rue, Mr and Mrs Gerry Marsden, Mr Spike Milligan, Mrs Cliff Michelmore, Mr Tom McGurk, Mrs T P McKenna, Mr and Mrs Alfred Marks, Miss Ruth Madoc, Mr Patrick Mower, Mrs Joan Morecambe, Mr Pete Murray, Mr John Mortimer, QC, Mr Bob Monkhouse, Mr Richard Murdoch.

Mr and Mrs Derek Nimmo, Mrs David Nixon, Mr and Mrs Michael Parkinson, Mr and Mrs Lance Percival, Mr Willie Rushton, Miss Margaret Ritchie, Mr Wiliam Roache, Mr Ned Sherrin, Mr Donald Sinden, Miss Margaretta Scott, Dr S G Svenson and Miss Beryl Grey, Mr Leslie Thomas, Mr Jimmy Tarbuck, Mr Fred Trueman, Mr Denis Twohy, Mr Bruce Trent, Mr Peter West, Mr and Mrs Terry Wogan, Mr and Mrs Ernie Wise, Mr Kenneth Wolstenholme, Mr Mike Yarwood, Mr Donald Zec and representatives of the Order of St Gregory.

The Times 8 December 1987

Court and Social: Memorial services - 'A man of encouragement'

By: LYNDA MURDIN

Two thousand people - the famous and not so famous - filled Westminster Cathedral yesterday for the memorial requiem Mass for Mr Eamonn Andrews, presenter of the television programme, This is Your Life.

Cardinal Basil Hume reminded the congregation of how Mr Andrews had brought 'a good deal of encouragement and pleasure to so many'.

He said: 'Eamonn combined superb professionalism with such obvious goodness that the sight and sound of him reassured and refreshed us all.'

'His supreme, and certainly unconscious, achievement was to let the world see the kind and generous face of one of Ireland's finest sons: open, smiling, sympathetic.'

He went on to suggest that God could well have prepared a kind of This is Your Life surprise for its earthly perpetrator; 'Eamonn in his most famous television series depended much on the element of surprise. I like to think that even now he has experienced the most astounding surprise of all, or is at least on the way to it.'

'I trust he has been able to see the meaning of scripture: 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things of God prepared for them that love him'.'

The service provided many contrasts: television lamps and candles, incense and expensive aftershave, nuns and boxers, women in fur coats, others in woolly hats saying their rosaries.

Afterwards Mrs Andrews said: 'It was very touching, Eamonn would have been very flattered.'

*The three This Is Your Life programmes made by Mr Andrews before his death but not broadcast will be seen early next year at the start of a new series, which will also include 'classic' examples from the past. Thames Television, which has the show's rights for another three years, said yesterday that a new presenter had not yet been found for a series planned for later next year.

The Stage 10 December 1987

A moving tribute

WESTMINSTER Cathedral was packed for Monday's Requiem Mass for Eamonn Andrews. Friends and colleagues from entertainment and broadcasting were present in abundance and joined the Andrews family for a moving tribute to the man and the broadcaster.

Cardinal Hume, presiding, described him as "one of Ireland's finest sons" and the Irish ambassador, Andrew O'Rourke, recalled his career in Ireland and Britain and said Eamonn Andrews had brought the two communities closer together in a way that any diplomat would have been proud to claim as a life's work.

The readers were Lionel Jeffries, chairman of the Catholic Stage Guild, Eamonn's son Fergal and Richard Dunn, managing director of Thames Television.

The Sunday Times 13 December 1987

Russell Harty's Notebook: How Santa got the surprise of his life

A GLORIOUS requiem mass for Eamonn Andrews in Westminster Cathedral last Monday. Whenever a multitude of those who work in that extrovert world called showbusiness gather together to say thank you for a life fully lived, there bubbles to the surface a terrible urge to say please. Please look at me. 'I got through all of last year,' as Stephen Sondheim acidly observed, 'and I'm here.'

It is a human failing and, as such, excusable. But there are occasions when a memorial service can be deeply embarrassing. Somebody will stand up and tell a story about how sporting a golfer Bill was. Then follows a chanteuse who sobs out a tearful rendition of 'We'll Gather Lilacs'.

The temptations to slither into this mud pit of light entertainment must have been considerable last Monday. Sense and dignity prevailed. If the procession of clergy is led by Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster it would not be seemly for the jugglers to be jumping through their hoops in front of the high altar. If the music ranges from Bach to Faure, with a Mozartian nod to the side, then somehow, there is little need for a backing group miming Zak's latest hit single.

As it happened, there was an air of pleasant, if unusual, formality about the proceedings. Nothing left to chance, and every different and distinct area of Eamonn's achievements properly covered. His children offered various prayers. Andrew O'Rourke, the Irish ambassador spoke in straightforward terms about the positive bonds which bind our separate islands.

The eccentricity of our particular form of neighbourliness was then underlined by the singing of 'Jerusalem' - and the thunder of feet in ancient times, walking upon England's mountains green.

Lest you should think that solemnity settled over us like a mortifying cloud, let me tell you that at least one person has his head thoughtfully but joyfully in the wafting clouds of incense.

It is exactly seven years since Eamonn trapped me in Selfridges. I was pretending to be Father Christmas, dishing out presents from a big red plastic sack. I saw my younger nieces standing in the waiting line, one carrying a parcel. Since they live 250 miles away and had not announced their arrival, or their mother's, I was already taken aback by their brazen behaviour.

'We've brought a present for you, Santa!' they mumbled and, even then, I didn't smell any kind of rat. Eamonn was behind me by this time and confronted me at the moment when I was already unstable.

The rest of that day was as a dream. I am not remotely affected by those who believe that This is Your Life is an exhibition of naked embarrassment. I could not give half a fig for that opinion. All I know is that it was, to date, the second best day of my life. It was also, by happy accident, my mother's birthday. It didn't matter a damn that she cried all the way through.

There was one moment of near disaster. The final guest is, as you know, nearly always 'flown in... specially... you thought she was... and all the accompanying invitations to ritualistic frenzy. The drums rolled, the band fanfared. It could have been either the Queen or Mother Theresa for all I knew.

I didn't even recognise Olivia de Havilland as she floated towards me. Flying on automatic pilot, I made a lunge to peck her cheek. She turned her head away and I felt my mouth filling with a stiff parcel of lacquered hair. Eamonn rescued us. She then said that the previous time we had met, I showed a film clip of her in a deep clinch with Errol Flynn, but that I had cut the kiss.

'There'll be no cutting tonight,' she said, as obviously she had rehearsed, and the docking procedure then took place. That was why she had demurely turned away at the beginning. I was still too dazed to register anything which required sense of reason. The cloud I was sitting on was far too high for me to make any clear reading of ordinary terrestrial behaviour.

Eamonn came to Manchester on the following day to appear with me so that I could say 'thank you' and relive last night's intoxication without any nervous hangover. I asked him to stay to supper but he had ordered a private aeroplane to take him swiftly home to see his mother. She died the next day.

Grainne Andrews, Eamonn's wife, rightly said that he would have loved the service. 'So well organised... friendly people... and it finished on time!'

The Times 13 April 1988

Memorial services

Mr E. Andrews

A memorial service for Mr Eamonn Andrews was held yesterday at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, WC2. Father Columba Ryan, OP, officiated, assisted by Father Henry Dodd. Mr Frank Finlay and Mr Lionel Jeffries read the lessons and Mr Leslie Crowther gave an address. Mr Harold Dyer said the bidding prayer. Mr Vernon Midgley sang Adoro Te Devote by Donizetti and Miss Maryetta Midgley Panis Angelicus by Cesar Franck.

The Times 8 July 1989

Memorial services

Mrs Eamonn Andrews

A memorial service for Mrs Eamonn Andrews was concelebrated by Father Henry Dodd, Chaplain of the Catholic Stage Guild, and Father Columba Ryan yesterday at the Catholic Church of Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane. Mr Michael Aspel and Mr Malcolm Morris read the lessons and Mrs Bernard France gave an address.

The Guardian 22 August 1990

UK News in Brief: TV star's Pounds 5,501 will

Eamonn Andrews, who died in 1987, left only £5,501 net in England and Wales, according to his will, published yesterday. Most of his fortune is understood to be invested in property in Ireland.

The Times 22 August 1990

Latest wills

Mr Eamonn Andrews, of Pormarnock, Co Dublin, the television personality, left estate in England and Wales valued at £5,501 net.