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Nigel Rees
Nigel Rees
Nigel Rees
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Nigel Rees (born 5 June 1944 near Liverpool) is an English writer and broadcaster, known for devising and hosting the Radio 4 panel game Quote... Unquote (1976–2021)[1] and as the author of more than fifty books, mostly works of reference on language, and humour in language.

Key Information

Early life

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Rees attended Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby, near Liverpool where he was born, and then studied for a degree in English at New College, Oxford, where he was a Trevelyan Scholar and took a leading role in the Oxford University Broadcasting Society.[2]

Rees is a past President of the Lichfield Johnson Society and was described in The Spectator as "Britain's most popular lexicographer – the lineal successor to Eric Partridge and, like him, he makes etymology fun."[3]

Television and radio

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After leaving university, Rees went straight into television with Granada in Manchester and made his first TV appearances on local programmes in 1967 before moving to London as a freelance. He worked for ITN's News at Ten as a reporter before becoming involved in programmes for BBC Radio as reporter and producer.

In 1971, he turned to presenting. He introduced the BBC World Service current affairs magazine Twenty Four Hours between 1972 and 1979. From 1973 to 1975 he was also a regular presenter of Radio 4's arts magazine Kaleidoscope. From 1976 to 1978, he was the founder presenter of Radio 4's newspaper review Between the Lines and, from 1984 to 1986, Stop Press.

Rees kept up the revue acting he had started at Oxford by appearing for five years in Radio 4's topical comedy show Week Ending..., in the Betty Witherspoon Show with Ted Ray, Kenneth Williams and Miriam Margolyes, and then in all six series of the comedy The Burkiss Way. Comedy appearances have also included Harry Enfield and Chums on BBC TV.[4]

In 1976, he became the youngest ever regular presenter of Radio 4's Today programme, at the age of 32. He presented the programme for two years with Brian Redhead before leaving in May 1978 at the time of his marriage to Sue Bates, a marketing executive. Quote... Unquote, his quiz anthology on Radio 4, was by then in its third series. Co-developed with John Lloyd, the series continued until 2021.[1]

In 1990, Rees became the first celebrity winner of the Channel 4 quiz show Fifteen to One, finishing with a score of 141 points.

Widely recognised as host and participant in quizzes and panel games, he has been chairman of TV's Cabbages and Kings (quotations), Challenge of the South (general knowledge), Amoebas to Zebras (natural history) and First Things First (panel game) — all on ITV. For 18 years, he was a regular guest in Dictionary Corner on Channel 4's Countdown.

Writing

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In 1978, he wrote the first Quote... Unquote book, which led to a series under varying titles and devoted to aspects of the English language and especially the humour that derives from it. One of his five graffiti collections was a No. 1 paperback best-seller in the UK. Since 1992, he has published and edited The Quote... Unquote Newsletter, a quarterly journal (now distributed electronically) and devoted to the origins and use of well-known quotations, phrases and sayings. In 2011, his autobiography, My Radio Times, was published.

Reference books he has written or compiled include Cassell's Movie Quotations, Cassell's Humorous Quotations, A Word in Your Shell-Like and Brewer's Famous Quotations. In The Yale Book of Quotations, Fred Shapiro describes Rees as a "pioneering quotation scholar".[5]

Selected bibliography

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Nigel Rees

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from Grokipedia
Nigel Rees is a British broadcaster and writer known for devising and presenting the long-running BBC Radio 4 panel game Quote... Unquote, a celebrity quiz devoted to exploring quotations and the humour of the English language. The programme, which he chaired for every one of its 500 episodes across 57 series, began in January 1976 and concluded in 2021, featuring hundreds of notable guests and becoming a staple of BBC Radio 4. Rees began his career in broadcasting with Granada Television in 1967 before moving to freelance work in London, where he reported for ITN's News at Ten and contributed to various BBC programmes. He co-presented BBC Radio 4's Today programme from 1976 to 1978 and appeared in comedy series including Week Ending, The Betty Witherspoon Show, and The Burkiss Way. Beyond Quote... Unquote, he devised and presented other radio shows such as Where Were You in ’62? and Stop Press. Rees is a recognised authority on quotations, phrases, and wordplay, having authored more than fifty books on these topics, including Brewer's Famous Quotations and A Word In Your Shell-Like: 6,000 Curious & Everyday Phrases Explained. His work has earned praise as pioneering in quotation scholarship, with assessments describing him as Britain's leading lexicographer in this field and a successor to Eric Partridge. He has also served as president of the Johnson Society of Lichfield and patron of the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK).

Early life and education

Early life and education

Nigel Rees was born on 5 June 1944 near Liverpool, England. He attended Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby. He studied English at New College, Oxford, where he earned a B.A. with honours. As a Trevelyan Scholar, he was active in the Oxford University Broadcasting Society during his time at university. This involvement reflected an early interest in broadcasting that would later shape his career.

Broadcasting career

Early broadcasting work

Nigel Rees entered professional broadcasting after completing his degree at Oxford, joining Granada Television in Manchester where he made his first TV appearances on local programmes in 1967. He later moved to London to work as a freelance, taking on reporting duties for ITN's News at Ten. Rees subsequently became involved with BBC Radio in a variety of roles as a reporter and producer across news, current affairs, arts, and entertainment programmes. In 1971, he transitioned into presenting. He introduced the BBC World Service current affairs magazine Twenty-Four Hours nearly a thousand times between 1972 and 1979. From 1973 to 1975, he was also a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4's arts magazine Kaleidoscope.

Major radio presenting roles

Nigel Rees was a co-presenter of the BBC Radio 4 breakfast programme Today from 1976 to 1978, during which he became the youngest regular presenter of the programme at the age of 32. This role marked an early high-profile assignment in current affairs broadcasting. In 1976, he also founded and presented Radio 4's newspaper review programme Between the Lines, establishing a format for reviewing the day's press. He later returned to the newspaper review genre as presenter of Stop Press on Radio 4 from 1984 to 1986. Rees demonstrated versatility in comedy and satire through regular contributions to BBC Radio programmes. He appeared on Week Ending for five years, providing topical sketches and voice work. He was a cast member of The Betty Witherspoon Show and featured in all six series of the sketch comedy The Burkiss Way from 1976 to 1980, alongside performers such as Chris Emmett and Jo Kendall. On BBC Radio 2, he devised and presented the nostalgia panel game Where Were You in ’62? from 1983 to 1984, exploring events and culture of the 1950s and 1960s with celebrity panellists. These presenting roles overlapped with the launch of his long-running programme Quote... Unquote in 1976.

Quote... Unquote

Quote... Unquote is a long-running BBC Radio 4 panel game devised and presented by Nigel Rees, focusing on testing knowledge of quotations through a celebrity panel. The programme features ten questions per episode that explore the origins, contexts, misattributions, and precise wording of famous quotes, often drawing on listener submissions for added variety. It premiered in 1976 and ran continuously for 46 years until 2021, with Rees chairing every edition personally. Rees hosted the milestone 500th edition in December 2021, after which he ended the series. The show marked significant anniversaries with special content, including a 40th anniversary series in which Rees selected and presented 40 of his favourite quotes from thousands featured over the decades. A searchable archive of quotes from the programme remains available on its official website.

Television career

Hosting and appearances

Nigel Rees hosted and devised several quiz and panel programmes on British television, mainly on ITV during the late 1970s and 1980s. He created and presented Cabbages and Kings from 1979 to 1983, a series focused on quotations. He also hosted Amoebas to Zebras from 1986 to 1987, a natural history-themed programme, and Challenge of the South in 1987. Additionally, he hosted the panel game First Things First on ITV. Rees became a familiar face on Channel 4 as a regular guest in Dictionary Corner on Countdown, appearing in 184 episodes from 1984 to 2001. In 1990, he competed as a celebrity contestant on Fifteen to One and became the first celebrity winner of the show with a score of 141 points. His other television appearances include playing a TV interviewer in one episode of Harry Enfield and Chums in 1994. He also had an uncredited role as a TV newscaster in the film No Blade of Grass (1970).

Writing career

Published books

Nigel Rees has authored more than sixty books in print, with additional e-book editions, most of which are reference works on quotations, catchphrases, clichés, word and phrase origins, and humorous aspects of language. His early writing success came from a series of graffiti collections that became a notable publishing phenomenon of the early 1980s and sold millions of copies, beginning with Graffiti Lives, O.K. in 1979. These light-hearted compilations captured contemporary street humour and graffiti inscriptions, establishing his reputation for documenting popular language trends. Rees's subsequent output focused on more scholarly reference titles, including Why Do We Say...? (1987, later retitled Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins), Bloomsbury Dictionary of Popular Phrases (1990), Cassell's Humorous Quotations (2001), A Word in Your Shell-Like (2004), and Brewer's Famous Quotations (2006). His autobiography My Radio Times appeared in 2013, reflecting on his broadcasting experiences. Many of these works draw directly on material and expertise accumulated during his long-running radio programme Quote... Unquote. Rees's contributions to quotation scholarship are widely respected, with his books cited in sources such as The New Yale Book of Quotations and his Brewer's Famous Quotations described as estimable. His extensive body of work has positioned him as an authority on the origins and use of phrases in popular culture.

Newsletter and ongoing work

Following the end of the BBC Radio 4 programme Quote... Unquote in 2021 after 46 years and 500 episodes, Nigel Rees has continued his research into the origins and usage of quotations, phrases, and sayings through The “Quote ... Unquote” Newsletter and his official website. Rees publishes and edits the quarterly newsletter, which serves as a digest of information for speakers, writers, and others interested in quotations. Originally issued in print, it is now distributed electronically as free PDF attachments via email. The January 2026 issue is currently available, reflecting the newsletter's ongoing publication. The website quote-unquote.org.uk provides a central platform for this work, hosting a searchable archive of the radio programme from 1976 to 2021—including full lists of the 57 series, transmission dates, guests, producers, readers, and panellists—along with audio downloads, specimen newsletter articles, current FAQs on phrase origins, and a large section of unsolved queries inviting public assistance in tracing lost quotations. Additional features include comprehensive lists of Rees's books and e-books, as well as details of his speaking engagements, lectures, and performances. This newsletter and website combination sustains Rees's long-standing commitment to accurate quotation sourcing and public engagement in the field.

Personal life

Family and later activities

Nigel Rees married Sue Bates, a marketing executive, in May 1978. The couple has resided in both London and Oxfordshire. Rees has maintained affiliations with literary societies reflecting his interests in language and literature. He served as President of the Johnson Society of Lichfield during 2006/7. He is Patron of the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK). In later years, Rees has undertaken speaking engagements, lectures, and performances on topics related to quotations, language, and broadcasting history. He continues to edit his long-running newsletter following 2021. His autobiography, My Radio Times (2011), provides personal reflections on his life and career.
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