Marcel Stellman obit

Marcel Stellman: Countdown creator dies aged 96

 

He was not on the list.

Marcel Stellman, creator of Channel 4's long-running gameshow Countdown, has died at the age of 96.

Belgian-born Stellman was also a record producer and lyricist who wrote songs for stars including Cilla Black, Charles Aznavour and The Shadows.

Among his best-known tracks was the Max Bygraves hit Tulips From Amsterdam, released in 1958.

Countdown was Channel 4's first show at its 1982 launch and has become one of the world's most enduring game shows.

Stellman's nephew wrote on Twitter: "It is with our deepest sorrow we share with you news of the death of our beloved Uncle - Marcel Stellman, 96, who passed away late last night. Marcel is survived by his beloved wife Jean."

Former Countdown star Carol Vorderman, who appeared on the show for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, was among those paying tribute, crediting Stellman with making Countdown a "juggernaut".

Vorderman added Stellman had had "a great life well lived" and recalled "many very happy decades together".

The pair's working relationship was close, and when she left the show after contract negotiations turned sour Stellman expressed his "upset".

"This is a person I have known for 26 years who started Countdown. If I am Mr Countdown, she is Mrs Countdown," he said.

Also paying tribute was dictionary corner's Susie Dent, who said the show had lost its "patriarch and most passionate advocate".

Stellman was born in Belgium in 1925 and worked as a producer and international manager at Decca Records from the mid-1950s up to 1989.

He worked alongside many big names including Sir Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Dame Vera Lynn.

In the 1940s and 50s, Stellman also worked on children's programmes for the BBC.

Stellman brought Countdown to the UK in 1982, inspired by French TV series Des Chiffres et Des Lettres (Numbers and Letters).

He pitched the concept to several networks and it was ultimately picked up by Yorkshire Television, which commissioned a series of eight shows.

The series was later bought by a fledgling Channel 4, becoming the first programme to be aired following its launch in November 1982, hosted by Richard Whiteley.

Whiteley died in 2005 and has since been followed in the position of host by a number of famous faces including Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Jeff Stelling and most recently Nick Hewer. Former Weakest Link host Anne Robinson is set to take over from Hewer in June.

Hewer also paid tribute to Stellman, remembering him as "kind and supportive".

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He was a Belgian born British record producer and lyricist. Among the many artists who recorded Stellman’s songs are Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Charles Aznavour, the Shadows and Tony Bennett. In the UK he is best known as the man who brought the French show Des chiffres et des lettres to the UK as Countdown. His pseudonyms as a lyricist include Gene Martyn and Leo Johns.

Stellman was born in Antwerp, Belgium, one of 11 children. His mother, Lily, was Scottish and his father, Willy Stellman, was a Belgian Jew. In 1938, his father took him to his uncle Leopold’s jazz club, where he saw Louis Armstrong perform.

 

His father died of natural causes when he was young and five of his siblings were killed in Nazi death camps. However, his mother, who was Scottish, escaped the German invasion of Belgium in 1940 with the 14-year-old Marcel and settled in Glasgow.

 

Stellman's long association with the BBC began in the 1940s and 50s when he presented schools and children's radio programming. In the 1960s he worked on a television series for children featuring Pinky and Perky, two singing puppet pigs. In the 1980s he stood in for Alan Dell, presenting 'Sounds Easy' on BBC Radio 2.

 

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