Biography

His fervent support for Margaret Thatcher led to the end of his decades-long career as a BBC radio presenter and personality. On a live radio broadcast immediately prior to the 1983 election (a broadcast which had nothing to do with politics), he waited until his interviewer was just signing off and then quickly said that he just wanted to say that a vote for the Labour Party (then led by Michael Foot) would be, in his opinion, a vote for Communism in Britain. There was, as he knew, no time for anyone to rebut this flagrantly biased "opinion", and there were many protests to the effect that it was, in fact, more of a shameless propaganda slur than a genuine view. The BBC, which always seeks to retain an even-handed approach in such matters, terminated his contract, and his days as a radio star were essentially over.

He was a right-wing Conservative and a keen admirer of Margaret Thatcher.

In the late 1960s he was briefly engaged to Blue Peter (1958) presenter Valerie Singleton.

His son, Michael Murray James, committed suicide at the age of 27.

As well as acting, he became a disc jockey in 1949, working for Pirate Radio, and then BBC Radio from 1958 and Commercial Radio from 1983.