David Jacobs (broadcaster)
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David Jacobs CBE (born London, 19 May 1926) is a British actor and broadcaster who rose to prominence as presenter of the peak-time BBC Television show Juke Box Jury and of the Radio 4 political forum, Any Questions?
Early career
Jacobs was educated at Strand School. He served in the Royal Navy from 1944 to 1947, and first broadcast on Navy Mixture in 1944. He became an announcer with the British Forces Broadcasting Service and was chief announcer on Radio SEAC in Ceylon (1945-47). He was later assistant-station director.
A BBC staff announcer in the early 1950s, his voice eerily intoned the title for many of the 53 episodes of the popular space adventure series Journey Into Space. He also played no fewer than 22 acting parts in the course of the series.
He also broadcast on Radio Luxembourg.
Later career
David Jacobs became best known as presenter of Juke Box Jury on BBC television between 1959 and 1967. He was one of the four original presenters of Top of the Pops when it started in 1964. He had earlier, between 1957 and 1961, eastablished the chart show format of the Light Programme's Pick of the Pops, to which he briefly returned in 1962.
Between 1957 and 1966 Jacobs was the presenter of A Song for Europe and did the UK commentary at several Eurovision Song Contests.
He hosted the popular panel game What's My Line? when it was revived on BBC2 from 1973 to 1974. In 1973 he hosted a short-lived version of the American game show The Who, What, or Where Game.
From December 1967 until July 1983 Jacobs chaired the influential Radio 4 live topical debate programme Any Questions? One episode notoriously descended into chaos when some of the audience heckled Enoch Powell: they were evicted, and a stone was thrown through the stained-glass window of the church from which the programme was being broadcast. Jacobs later for a time presented a similar series called Questions for TVS.
Jacobs appeared as himself in the 1974 film Stardust, compéring a 1960s award ceremony. He also appeared as himself in an episode of the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, where he played the presenter of a fictional home improvement show.
His daughter, Emma Jacobs, was an actress best known for her role as Alex Khaled, daughter of Fontaine Khaled (Joan Collins) in the 1978 film The Stud.
Most of Jacobs' career since the advent of psychedelia and flower power has been at BBC Radio 2. Between January 1985 and December 1991 he presented a daily lunchtime programme of what he characterised as "our kind of music", much of it popular tunes from musical theatre. Now one of the station's old guard, his Sunday late-night easy listening show, The David Jacobs Collection, often features the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr. (Its signature tune, I Love You, Samantha, by the Pete Moore orchestra, is available on the album My Fair Ladies.)
Much younger DJs Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe recruited Jacobs in 2008 to introduce album tracks from Cream on their weekday evening Radio 2 show under the rubric 'Jacobs' Cream Crackers', an allusion in to a well-known brand of biscuit.
Jacobs holds the honorary office of high steward of the Royal Borough of Kingston . He has been involved since its inception in the development of the Kingston's Rose Theatre, of which he is life president.
