Irene Thomas

Who was Irene Thomas?

Irene Thomas was a British radio personality, well known for her participation in quiz shows and panel games from the 1960s until her death.

Irene Thomas was born Elsie Irene Ready in Feltham, Middlesex, into a working-class family, the daughter of a musician in a military band. She left school at fifteen, and embarked on a career as a musician and singer. In 1946 she joined the chorus at Covent Garden, and met and married her second husband, Eddie Thomas, to whom she remained married until her death. She branched out into session singing, joined the George Mitchell Minstrels and became the familiar voice of many radio and television advertising jingles in the 1950s.

In 1961 she entered and won radio's Brain of Britain contest. This heralded a forty-year period as a mainstay of radio panel game quiz programmes. in 1967, after much lobbying of the producers, she joined the panel on Round Britain Quiz, regarded as the most erudite of the BBC's quiz shows, and rapidly became its most celebrated panellist.

Her autobiography, The Bandsman's Daughter, was published in 1979.