Personnel
The host of the show was originally the cricket broadcaster John Arlott, but he was soon replaced by Jack Longland, who spent over twenty years as chairman. Longland was succeeded by John Julius Norwich and finally Michael O'Donnell.
Muir and Norden were always on opposing teams. Muir's partner was initially Isobel Barnett, but she was soon replaced with the film critic E. Arnot Robertson. On Robertson's death in 1961, the film critic and Greek scholar Dilys Powell took her place until the show finished, when she was in her ninetieth year. Norden's first partner was the journalist Nancy Spain; after her death in 1964 she was succeeded by journalist Anne Scott-James, and then in 1979 by writer and historian Antonia Fraser. Fraser took the chair for one season in the 1980s, when her place on the panel was taken by Irene Thomas.
Guest panellists, substituting for regulars, included Alfred Marks, Barry Took, John Wells (once in 1973, filling in for Muir; once in 1975, for Norden), and Katharine Whitehorn (once in 1975, for Anne Scott-James).
After Edward J. Mason's death in 1971, Jack Longland, with the assistance of Peter Moore, took over responsibility for compiling most of the questions. After Longland's retirement, Moore became the sole question-setter.
Read more about this topic: My Word!
Famous quotes containing the word personnel:
“This woman is headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self- opinionated.”
—Report by Personnel Officer at I.C.I., rejecting Mrs. Thatcher for a job in 1948.