Frank Bough

Frank Bough (pronounced /ˈbɒf/) (b. 15 January 1933) is a British television presenter who specialised in sports programmes.

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Early life

He was born in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, England on 15 January, 1933.

Bough was educated at Blackhall Primary, Edinburgh, Scotland and at Merton College, Oxford, reputedly being one of the last generation of undergraduates to be awarded a fourth class degree. He played football for the university against Cambridge, and carried out his national service in the Royal Tank Regiment.

Career

He joined the BBC as an anchorman and reporter and in 1964 he began presenting the BBC Sports Review of the Year, which he would host for eighteen years. He also presented Sportsview, and in 1968 the BBC's flagship Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand. He went on to present the early evening news programme, Nationwide.

In 1977 Bough was memorably a guest on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special, performing a song and dance routine in top hat and tails with the likes of Eddie Waring and Barry Norman, among others. The programme's recorded audience figures remain a British record.

He was the main presenter of the BBC's coverage of the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina.

He was a roving holidaymaker in the BBC's Holiday programme; and made history as the first presenter of the BBC's inaugural breakfast television programme, Breakfast Time with Selina Scott.

In the early 1990s he was a presenter on London's LBC radio, staying on for the launch of London News Talk and moving to the News 97.3 service where he remained until 1996. He then presented Travel Live for the cable channel Travel.

Personal life

He married Nesta Howells (grand-niece of Rees Howells) after leaving the army in 1959. They have three children.

Bough had a colourful private life which involved taking cocaine and wearing lingerie at sex parties. The cocaine allegations almost completely ended his television career, although he did briefly return to present ITV's coverage of the 1991 Rugby World Cup. He also made headlines after being found in an S&M brothel in 1992.

In 1993, after his activities were regularly subjected to ridicule in monologues by Angus Deayton on Have I Got News For You, Bough was invited on to the programme as a guest and, to many people's surprise, he agreed. He was not ridiculed by Deayton this time, although Ian Hislop and Jo Brand made some light-hearted comments when a picture of a woman's legs in stockings were shown. Bough emerged from the recording as a good sport.

Bough, a supporter of Hibernian F.C. football club, had a liver transplant in 2001 after cancer was found.

He now lives in quiet retirement in Holyport, Berkshire.

Name use in Cockney rhymes

His name has entered Cockney rhyming slang: "I'm Frank Bough" meaning "I'm off". And "Its time for Frankie Bough" meaning "It's time for scoff" (a slang word meaning 'to eat').