Jonathan Routh
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Reginald Surdeval Routh (November 24, 1927 - June 4, 2008) co-starred in the British version of the television show Candid Camera
(1960-67) and co-starred with Germaine Greer
and Kenny Everett
in a later attempt at a revival, Nice Time (1968). He published a number of humorous books, and also painted for many years.
Routh was born in Gosport
, Hampshire
, the son of a British Army
colonel
and spent much of his early childhood in Palestine
. He was educated at Uppingham School
, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge
where he read history.
Routh had two sons from his first marriage and had been married to his wife Shelagh since 1973. He died in Jamaica
on 4 June 2008.
around 1961 for ABC TV
. Following a long dispute with the American lawyers of Allen Funt
as to who held the rights to Candid Camera, Routh moved on to new fields, working with John Birt
, later director general of the BBC, for Granada TV
, along with Germaine Greer
and Kenny Everett
in Nice Time. He also worked in television advertising on spots such as J. Walter Thompson
's for Smarties
and Kellogg's
Corn Flakes
, appearing also in some spots himself, for example Newcastle Brown Ale
. The British version of Candid Camera
returned along in 1974, starring Peter Dulay, Arthur Atkins and Sheila Bernette. In 1976. Jonathan Routh
returned to the pranks & the show was retitled Jonathan Routh & Candid Camera.
, Routh created an unusual set of small guidebooks: The Good Loo Guide and The Good Cuppa Guide (both about London), The Guide Porcelaine to the Loos of Paris, and The Better John Guide (about New York). The humor owed much to the apparent seriousness, and to the affectionate parody of the connoisseurship of The Good Food Guide
(then as now a trove of information on fine eating).
Loos are rated by the application of stars, three-star establishments being "worth travelling out of your way to experience". The illustrations are numerous as well as convenient, with Glashan's characters (typically bearded men) experiencing various adventures and misadventures.
The "completely new & revised" edition of 1968 lives up to its billing. More is included, and ten establishments earn a new award, the "Good Loo Royal Flush".
Two decades later, Routh (but not Glashan) would reexamine this issue with the Initial Good Loo Guide, on which see below.
A French translation also appeared: Guide porcelaine des "lieux" de Paris (Editions de la Jeune Parque, 1967).
of his imagination and nuns, as he claimed to be unable to paint faces, arms or legs. He exhibited regularly in Jamaica, Italy and the United States; as of early 2008, his paintings were also on display in what had been his favourite restaurant, San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place, London. In March 2008, Routh issued limited editions of his original paintings through Chisholm Gallery.
Routh's paintings of nuns and Queen Victoria were turned into a number of books:
Candid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
(1960-67) and co-starred with Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
and Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett was an English comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Born Maurice James Christopher Cole, Everett is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.-Early life:...
in a later attempt at a revival, Nice Time (1968). He published a number of humorous books, and also painted for many years.
Routh was born in Gosport
Gosport
Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, the son of a British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
and spent much of his early childhood in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. He was educated at Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
where he read history.
Routh had two sons from his first marriage and had been married to his wife Shelagh since 1973. He died in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
on 4 June 2008.
Television work
Following a success with Candid Mike, Routh started Candid CameraCandid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
around 1961 for ABC TV
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Following a long dispute with the American lawyers of Allen Funt
Allen Funt
Allen Funt was an American television producer, director and writer, television personality, best known as the creator and host of Candid Camera from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regular television show or a television series of specials...
as to who held the rights to Candid Camera, Routh moved on to new fields, working with John Birt
John Birt, Baron Birt
John Birt, Baron Birt is a former Director-General of the BBC who was in the post from 1992 to 2000.After a successful career in commercial television, first at Granada and then at LWT, Birt was brought in as deputy director-general of the BBC in 1987 for his current affairs expertise...
, later director general of the BBC, for Granada TV
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
, along with Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
and Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett was an English comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Born Maurice James Christopher Cole, Everett is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.-Early life:...
in Nice Time. He also worked in television advertising on spots such as J. Walter Thompson
JWT
JWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
's for Smarties
Smarties (Nestlé)
Nestlé Smarties are a colour-varied sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular primarily in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Germany and Greece. They have been manufactured since 1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Co.....
and Kellogg's
Kellogg Company
Kellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...
Corn Flakes
Corn flakes
Corn flakes are a popular breakfast cereal originally manufactured by Kellogg's through the treatment of maize. A patent for the product was filed on May 31, 1895, and issued on April 14, 1896.-History:...
, appearing also in some spots himself, for example Newcastle Brown Ale
Newcastle Brown Ale
Newcastle Brown Ale is a beer produced by Heineken International. It was introduced in 1927 by Newcastle Breweries. In 2005, brewing was moved out of Newcastle upon Tyne for the first time, to Dunston on the other side of the River Tyne, and in 2010 moved entirely to Tadcaster, North Yorkshire...
. The British version of Candid Camera
Candid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
returned along in 1974, starring Peter Dulay, Arthur Atkins and Sheila Bernette. In 1976. Jonathan Routh
Jonathan Routh
Jonathan Reginald Surdeval Routh co-starred in the British version of the television show Candid Camera and co-starred with Germaine Greer and Kenny Everett in a later attempt at a revival, Nice Time...
returned to the pranks & the show was retitled Jonathan Routh & Candid Camera.
Guidebooks created with John Glashan
With John GlashanJohn Glashan
John Glashan was a Scottish cartoonist, illustrator and playwright. He was the creator of the "Genius" cartoons....
, Routh created an unusual set of small guidebooks: The Good Loo Guide and The Good Cuppa Guide (both about London), The Guide Porcelaine to the Loos of Paris, and The Better John Guide (about New York). The humor owed much to the apparent seriousness, and to the affectionate parody of the connoisseurship of The Good Food Guide
Good Food Guide
The Good Food Guide is an annual guidebook to the best restaurants in the UK, published by Which?books.The Good Food Guide was first published in 1951 by Raymond Postgate, an enthusiastic gourmet, who was appalled by the standard of contemporary catering. He recruited an army of volunteers to...
(then as now a trove of information on fine eating).
The Good Loo Guide
The Good Loo Guide, a compact fifty-page booklet subtitled "Where to Go in London", written with Brigid Segrave and "conveniently illustrated" by John Glashan, was the first of the series, published in London by Wolfe in 1965. A note on the copyright page sets the tone:- This is an impartial guide. Our visits to loos have been anonymous. We have not declared ourselves even after making use of the establishment's facilities. Nor have we at any time accepted hospitality, but paid cash for all chargeable facilities we have used.
Loos are rated by the application of stars, three-star establishments being "worth travelling out of your way to experience". The illustrations are numerous as well as convenient, with Glashan's characters (typically bearded men) experiencing various adventures and misadventures.
The "completely new & revised" edition of 1968 lives up to its billing. More is included, and ten establishments earn a new award, the "Good Loo Royal Flush".
Two decades later, Routh (but not Glashan) would reexamine this issue with the Initial Good Loo Guide, on which see below.
The Good Cuppa Guide
The Good Cuppa Guide: Where to Have Tea in London, published in 1966, was "blended" by Routh and "milked and sugared" by Glashan. The format and charm (and, in its day, usefulness) are those of the Good Loo Guide. Providers of cuppas are rated with a maximum of five stars.Guide Porcelaine to the Loos of Paris
In the Guide Porcelaine to the Loos of Paris (1966), Routh must of course provide not only locations and descriptions but also convenient phrases for the nervous English tourist. An example: Donnez-moi les ordres simples pour atteindre le pissoir le plus pres d'ici; et, s'il vous plait, sans les gesticulations sauvages et tumultueuses [no diacritics in the original], i.e. Please direct me to the nearest loo in simple terms and without waving your hands in too dangerous a manner.A French translation also appeared: Guide porcelaine des "lieux" de Paris (Editions de la Jeune Parque, 1967).
The Better John Guide
Unlike the three-and-sixpenny (seventeen and a half pence) booklets described above, The Better John Guide: Where to Go in New York (New York: Putnam, 1966) was a $2.50 hardback. Written with Serena Stewart, it had "graffiti" by Glashan. Unfortunately this graffiti is largely recycled from the convenient illustrations of The Good Loo Guide. Some of the text was recycled too — understandably so, as neither work was likely to have been known in the other city.Art
Routh also painted for many years, concentrating on depicting the Queen VictoriaVictoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
of his imagination and nuns, as he claimed to be unable to paint faces, arms or legs. He exhibited regularly in Jamaica, Italy and the United States; as of early 2008, his paintings were also on display in what had been his favourite restaurant, San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place, London. In March 2008, Routh issued limited editions of his original paintings through Chisholm Gallery.
Routh's paintings of nuns and Queen Victoria were turned into a number of books:
- Jamaica Holiday: The secret life of Queen Victoria. London: Harmony Hall, 1984.
- The Nuns Go to Africa. London: Methuen, 1971.
- The Nuns Go to Penguin Island. London: Methuen, 1971.
- The Nuns Go East. London: Methuen, 1972.
- The Nuns Go West. London: Methuen, 1972.
Other books by Routh
- The Little Men in My Life. London: Barrie, 1953. (Reissued in 1962 as An Exhibition of Myself.)
- Captain d'Arcy's Filthy Picture Book. London: Wolfe, 1967.
- Dr. Crocker's Exercise Book. London: Wolfe, 1967.
- The Hangover Book: Prevention, preparation, treatment and cure. London: Wolfe, 1967.
- So You Think You've Got Problems: A book of disasters. London: Wolfe, 1967.
- Routh's Weekend Guide. London: Anthony Blond, 1969.
- "Leonardo's Kitchen Notebooks" with Shelagh Routh. London: Collins 1987
- Jonathan Routh's Initial Good Loo Guide: Where to "go" in London. London: Banyan, 1989. ISBN 0-7119-1282-3. Illustrated by Enzo Apicella, this paperback is considerably larger than the earlier work by Routh and Glashan. The odd title derives from the book's sponsorship by Initial Textile Services, a company that serviced loos.
External links
- Nice Time On Nice Time, the television series (BBC Comedy Guide).
- The Human Person as an Icon of the Trinity Revised text of a university sermon preached in Great St Mary's, Cambridge on 13 October 1985 by Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia) that takes as its starting point an anecdote of the Surrey Room restaurant of Waterloo station, as recounted by Routh in The Good Cuppa Guide.
- "Jonathan Routh: Candid Camera prankster" (obituary). Times (London) 6 June 2008.
- Obituary: Economist
- Obituary: Telegraph
- Barker, Dennis. "Jonathan Routh: Television presenter who brought Candid Camera to Britain" (obituary). Guardian, 9 June 2008.
- Hayward, Anthony. " Jonathan Routh: Prankster star of 'Candid Camera' who later became a painter and the author of 'The Good Loo Guide'" (obituary). Independent (London) 7 June 2008.