[news.bbc.co.uk]

Contemporary Report:

1960: TV star famed for rudeness dies

British TV personality Gilbert Harding, who achieved fame through his outspoken and often rude behaviour, has died of a heart attack. He collapsed as he was leaving the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London after a recording session. His chauffeur waiting to collect him saw him slump to the ground with a hand to his head.

In 1950 Mr Harding was suspended by the BBC from the chairmanship of Twenty Questions for angrily and audibly grumbling about the lengthy introductions at the start of the programme

[…]

Five months later he was back in the chair, but the rudeness and unpredictability continued.

Perhaps the most famous incident was on a very foggy day in December 1952. The weather affected his asthma and, as he put it himself, he may have “overfortified” himself and his behaviour on What’s my Line? showed it.

He said later: “If I appeared a bit tiddly, then viewers were not wrong in thinking I was a bit tiddly.”

Modern Addendum:

On 9 December a memorial service was held at Westminster Cathedral attended by some 2,000 people including other well-known stars of TV and radio as well as members of the public.

[…]

Mr Harding was also a regular contestant on Radio 4’s Round Britain Quiz, which is still running.

One can only wonder whether, if being a bit tiddly on TV is considered rudely phrased as well as improper, what the audiences of then would have made of modern “behaviour” without an intervening downward slide…