The TV presenter and radio DJ Dale Winton, who has died aged 62, was light entertainment in pure form. His most famous work was as the host of disposable and sometimes absurd games and quizzes, but all of it was done with the aim of providing a hit of silly, simple happiness for viewers. Winton – now the subject of countless tributes from colleagues confirming that he was funny and kind in real life – knew exactly how seriously his oeuvre should be taken. In that spirit, here is a quick YouTube canter through his career.
Radio Trent (1977)
The tan, the teeth, the hair and the suit are not quite polished and ready to dazzle, but Winton is still audibly Dale during his long stint as a local radio jock: in fact, he would later tone down his trademark lazy consonants and mid-Atlantic vowels. In the early 80s his rival on Radio Nottingham was Simon Mayo, now Radio 2’s drivetime presenter: “He called us the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford of local radio,” Mayo recalled. “I’m not sure who was who.”
Supermarket Sweep (1993)
Winton’s big break came in one of the best daytime programmes of all time, a sick-day classic full of unpretentious joy, mild chaos and, for a quiz show, a surprising amount of full-pelt sprinting. The host would soon hone his rattling patter and camp asides, but even in this early episode, which climaxes with Helen and Val from Kent screaming at icing sugar, it is almost all there.
Sleeper: Inbetweener (1994)
Peak Dale occurred in the 90s, when Britain was halfway between celebrating and satirising its love of gaudy low culture. Always self-aware enough to undermine his own image for a laugh, Winton was the natural choice to star in the video for the biggest hit by none-more-Britpop band Sleeper. Two years later, Winton left a mark on a rather hipper totem of the age when he appeared in Trainspotting as a quiz host in a cold-turkey hallucination.
Pets Win Prizes (1995)
After a first series hosted by Danny Baker, this confidently self-explanatory game show made a more obvious choice for its second run, lifting Winton from morning telly into primetime. His honest enthusiasm and inability to be fazed by anything are to the fore here as he effortlessly comperes an eel race. “What I remember most about that show was the smell,” Winton wrote in his autobiography. “I like to think that my studios are fragrant places, but trying telling that to sheep, geese and llamas.”
In It to Win It (2002)
Showbiz success requires stamina, as evidenced by an endurance feat that the contestants on notorious Winton-fronted 2001 game show Touch the Truck could never match: Dale did 15 straight years on the Saturday lottery warm-up quiz. Cult appeal came from the host’s occasional raised eyebrow at a daft multiple-choice answer and – as this increasingly hysterical compilation demonstrates – Winton reacting identically each time to the end-of-show klaxon.
Hole in the Wall (2008)
Winton’s genius lay in polishing and then applying his own sparkle to turds such as BBC One’s ludicrous celebrity game show, in which D-listers in Lycra had to adopt cruelly embarrassing poses or be shoved into a pond. With his talent for seasoning maximum camp gusto with the right amount of knowing irony, Winton was the only possible host. Bring on the wall!
