Trevor Hill

Norman Trevor Hill (28 October 1925 – 29 October 2023) was a British writer, producer and director for the BBC, where his career began in 1942 when he was recruited as the sound effects assistant for It's That Man Again. In 1944 he was responsible for broadcasting General Eisenhower's D-Day announcement of the landing of allied troops on Normandy's beaches. Later, he worked on Children's Hour and the Round Britain Quiz, recruited Harry Corbett and produced Sooty.

Hill retired as assistant head of BBC radio in 1983 but continued working freelance until 1998. His memoir, Over the Airwaves, was published in 2005.

Early life and education Norman Trevor Hill was born on 28 October 1925 in Southampton, Hampshire. The family moved to Highbury, London, and then settled in Mill Hill, northwest London, where Hill became inspired by his neighbour, the actor and comedian Syd Walker. He was at the time 16 years old, and hired as youth-in-training. On 6 June 1944, at the age of 18 years, Hill was responsible for broadcasting General Eisenhower's D-Day announcement of the landing of allied troops on Normandy's beaches, having received the recording the day before.

Hill married Sergeant Margaret Potter, whom he met in Hamburg when he was posted there with the British Forces Network. It was there that he also recruited Roger Moore in a minor role in The Adventures of Robin Hood. He later gave him a part in the theatre production of The Shop at Sly Corner. Following the opening performance at the Garrison Theatre, Hill felt unimpressed with Moore's acting ability and advised that he would be better placed modelling sweaters.

In 1952 Hill hired Harry Corbett and later produced the show Sooty for several years. According to a letter written by Corbett in 1965, when he suggested introducing the female character Soo, it was Hill, then producer, that dismissed the idea "on the grounds that sex would be creeping in". Hill recalled in his memoirs that Corbett had proposed the idea two years earlier, but he dismissed it stating to Corbett that "Sooty's girlfriend?" "Over my dead body!" The media attention received led Hill to document in his memoirs that "I wouldn't have missed a moment of this Sooty Saga – not for the world".