Gyles Brandreth

About

Gyles has had a long and prosperous career. He is a writer, broadcaster, and former Conservative Member of Parliament. Gyles rose to the Presidency of the Oxford Union in 1970.

In the 1980s Brandreth wrote scripts for Dear Ladies, the television programme featuring Hinge and Bracket. Brandreth is also the creator of a stage show called Zipp! which enjoyed success at the Edinburgh Festival and had a short run in London’s West End.

Gyles Brandreth was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), representing the City of Chester, from 1992 to 1997. In 1995, he was appointed to a junior ministerial position in John Major’s government as a Lord of the Treasury.

After his parliamentary career, he broadcast some of his reminiscences on BBC radio as Brandreth on Office and The Brandreth Rules in 2001, 2003 and 2005.

From 2003 to 2005 Brandreth hosted the Radio 4 comedy panel game Whispers.

In September 2004, Brandreth’s book on the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage was published.

Then in 2006, he appeared on the television series That Mitchell and Webb Look, satirising his appearances in Countdown’s Dictionary Corner on the fictional game show Numberwang. The following year, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio play “I.D.”

In 2008, he appeared as the guest celebrity in ‘Dictionary Corner’ on Countdown. This was to commemorate Carol Vorderman’s final appearance on the show, plus the final for that round, reflecting his appearance in the first final of Countdown.

In July to August 2009, he hosted the game show Knowitalls on BBC Two. In April 2010, he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Vote Now Show. He also makes a cameo appearance in Channel 4 Sit-Com The IT Crowd in the episode ‘The Final Countdown’.

Other Work

He wrote an authorised biography of John Gielgud, the actor, as well as lipogrammic reworks of Shakespeare.

With his wife he founded the Teddy Bear museum, formerly located in Stratford-upon-Avon, and now relocated to Wimbledon, London.

He is a former European Monopoly champion, and President of the Association of British Scrabble Players, having organised the first British National Scrabble Championship in 1972.

He is a regular contributor to the week-nightly BBC1 show The One Show.

Gyles has regularly appeared on BBC Radio 4’s comedy panel game Just a Minute.

He is the host of the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show Wordaholics, first aired on February 20, 2012.

He is an after-dinner speaker. Gyles held the world record for the longest continuous after-dinner speech, at 12 and a half hours, done as a charity stunt. He is still in demand as an after dinner speaker and events host.