Gavin Charles Alexander Campbell (born 17 March 1946) is a businessman and a former actor and television presenter, mostly known for his stint on ''

That's Life! ''That's Life!'' was a satirical consumer affairs programme on the BBC, at its height regularly reaching audiences of fifteen to twenty million, and receiving between 10,000 and 15,000 letters a week. The series was broadcast on BBC1 for 21 yea ...

'' from 1982 until the show ended in 1994.

Early life

Campbell was born in

Letchworth Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2021 census was 33,990. Letchworth ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, where he grew up. His father was a welder, and his mother later became involved in the women's peace movement. He was educated at St Christopher School, a boarding

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

in the town of

Letchworth Garden City Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first Garden city movement, garden city. The population at the time of the 2021 United Kin ...

, followed by the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

in London.

Career

Actor

Campbell began his career as an actor from 1970–71. He was an actor for 15 years. He played the part of Spencer Bodily in a 1970 episode of ''Department S''. He also played the part of a motorcycle policeman in the 1971 film adaptation of the TV sitcom '' On The Buses'' and Inspector Harry Morgan in the 1978 film The Playbirds.

Presenter

Campbell was a presenter on the BBC consumer television show

. Around 1983 ''That's Life'' was attracting 19 million viewers. In the 1997 general election Campbell presented a video presentation for the

Referendum Party The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue party, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership ...

, seeking the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. Five million copies of a VHS cassette with the video were sent to households in target constituencies. Campbell ran a company called One Hand Clapping Ltd from 1998–2002 with his wife. Until 2001, he worked for the Money Channel, which later went bankrupt. In 2001 he wrote a personal finance column for ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. Founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first published i ...

''. Since 2003, Campbell has been part of a company called First Growth Direct, based in Lew Trenchard in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, which imports wine. Before becoming an actor he had worked as a plongeur in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He has a house in France at

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

. He had been a wine director at Berry Brothers and Rudd of London.

Personal life

Campbell lives in Bedford Park, London, near the start of the M4.Bedford Park
/ref> He married Elizabeth (Liz) in 1985 in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

and they have four daughters and his wife worked in television. He ran his first

London Marathon The London Marathon (also known as the TCS London Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is an annual marathon held in London, England. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held in April, although it moved to Oct ...

in 1988, taking 3 hours and 49 minutes. He later ran in aid of the

deafblindness Deafblindness is the condition of little or no useful hearing and little or no useful sight. Different degrees of vision loss and auditory loss occur within each individual. Because of this inherent diversity, each deafblind individual's needs re ...

charity

Sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...

. He plays the

euphonium The euphonium ( ; ; ) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have thr ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Gavin 1946 births Living people Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama BBC television presenters Daily Mail journalists English male television actors English television personalities English television presenters People educated at St Christopher School People from Letchworth Wine merchants Male actors from Hertfordshire Actors from North Hertfordshire District