Keith Barron (born 8 August 1936) is an English actor and television presenter.
Barron is possibly best known for presenting Countdown from 1999-2007.
Barron is well-known from numerous roles on British television from the 1960s to the present day. Born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, he became well-known to UK television viewers in the early 1960s as the easy-going Detective Sergeant Swift in the Granada TV series The Odd Man and its spin-off It's Cold Outside. His major breakthrough, however, was as Nigel Barton, an avatar of the writer Dennis Potter in his plays Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand (he later played a very similar character in Potter's Play For Today offering Only Make Believe (1973)). He made many one-off television appearances, from Redcap and Z Cars in the mid 60s, to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The New Avengers and The Professionals. He made two appearances in Upstairs, Downstairs as Australian Gregory Wilmot. In the 1980s he was a guest in the Doctor Who serial Enlightenment.
On the big screen, he appeared in the David Puttnam film Melody (1971) as Mr Latimer. One of his best-loved and best-remembered roles was in the 1980s sitcom Duty Free. In the 1990s he co-starred in the sitcoms Haggard and All Night Long. In the 2000s he was a regular character on the ITV Sunday night drama Where the Heart Is.
Keith Barron has also appeared as himself as the guest celebrity in dictionary corner on several episodes of the Channel 4 words and numbers game Countdown.
His wife, Mary Pickford, is a stage designer, and they have two sons, Jamie and Mark. Mark works as a writer, under the name Mark Dawson.
He was the star on Bunn and Co., a radio show that broadcasted from March 2003 to April 2004 on BBC Radio 4
Barron's performance in the BBC's Test the Nation IQ test show on 2nd September 2006 gave him an IQ of 146.
In 2007 Barron joined ITV1's Coronation Street as George Trench.
Started his acting career with Sheffield Repertory, followed by acting parts on television, and on stage with Bristol Old Vic.
Father of Jamie and Mark, a writer, who goes by the nom-de-plume of Mark Dawson.
Wife Mary Pickard is a stage designer.
Replaced the late Brian Glover as the narrator of the Tetley Tea commercials on British television.
Took over from Peter Sallis at short notice to play the part of Captain Striker in Doctor Who.
