‘Blind Date’ voiceover icon Graham Skidmore dead aged 90

Blind Date voiceover icon Graham Skidmore has died aged 90.

The narrator – dubbed “Our Graham” by the ITV show’s host Cilla Black – passed after a 10-year battle with vascular dementia.

His son Neil, 54, said: “He might not have wanted to be seen on screen, but he had a celebrity voice – a known voice.

“He loved it. I do event organising and had a show in London and got dad to do the voice over. People recognised him straight away.”

Skidmore was a regular in the 1980s and ’90s on ‘Blind Date’ and from 1993 to 2002 his distinct tones were heard when he did voiceovers for Vic Reeves’ and Bob Mortimer’s ‘Shooting Stars’.

The father of three, who had five grandchildren, died on 27th December, but news of his death only emerged on Sunday night. (26.06.22)

His son added: “As children we did TV adverts with him. We would go off and be a family for P and O travel and the Abbey National.”

Daughter Catherine Johnson, 52, said Skidmore started out wanting to be a doctor, but missed his final exams because of an ear infection.

He had also been due to fight in the Korean War, but his health issue returned and he stayed at home – changing his life by plunging him into the world of showbiz thanks to his “exceptional” singing voice.

She said: “After National Service he went into engineering and for a hobby he started singing. He had an exceptional singing voice.

“He was told he ought to try out for musicals. That is what got him into the theatre.

“Daddy was self employed and had other lines of work. He had a launderette, a corner shop and he did up some flats. So there was some kind of consistency .

“He got into ‘Blind Date’ and then ‘Shootings Stars’.”

She said he was also in a ‘St Trinian’s’ movie, a Style Council video with Paul Weller and could be seen in the background of Stanley Kubrick’s film ‘Eyes Wide Shut’.

Johnson added: “At my wedding when he started talking people were turning round saying. ‘I know that voice’, even though they did not know he was the voice on ‘Blind Date’.

“He was a marvellous man. He looked after people and made sure other people were taken care of.

“He was very modest. He was not a theatrical ‘look at me person.’ He never really wanted his face to be seen that’s why he liked doing the voice overs.”