Blind Date's 'Our Graham' dies aged 90

Blind Date’s “Our Graham”, has died aged 90, his family has announced.

Graham Skidmore established himself as the voice of the ITV show for 17 years between 1985 and 2002.

He became known as “Our Graham” thanks to the show’s host Cilla Black who gave him the nickname.

He died in December 2021 on Boxing Day, his son Neil told the PA News Agency, with the news only reported on now after it was mentioned in the In Memoriam section in the Spring/Summer 2022 journal from actors’ union Equity.

Neil, 54, a former ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet company who is now a party organiser, told the PA news agency: “He was a fantastic father and husband to us and the family. He had an amazing celebrity voice.”

"The decision is yours" - 'Our Graham' was famous for his pun-tastic round-ups of the contestants

He confirmed his father had suffered from vascular dementia in his later years.

Graham was also the voice of BBC Two’s comedy panel show Shooting Stars, hosted by comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

Neil said of his father: “(It) was getting towards the end of his career that he had Blind Date, so he was loving it.

“He’d been doing (voice work) his whole career as, I think he started off with modelling, theatre, he did some musical work, and then he did tonnes of… a working kind of background artist and all this kind of stuff.

“And then he did various adverts on TV, so he was a real jobbing, kind of actor-voice artist and Blind Date was his big thing.

“It was fantastic to get that and he loved it and did it for years. And then, from that, he got Shooting Stars as well, which was good fun.”

An ITV spokesman said: “As the voice behind Blind Date for almost two decades, Graham was at the very heart of the show, and alongside Cilla Black, a huge part of the show’s enduring success amongst audiences.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family and his friends.”

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