Gilbert Harding was an outspoken English panelist, quiz master, and broadcaster, known as "the rudest man in Britain." A former teacher, police constable, and journalist, he began working with the BBC's Monitoring Service in 1939 as a sub editor. In 1944, he went to Canada for three years to work with the BBC's

      Toronto office. On returning to Britain in 1947, he began making appearances as a question master in the popular BBC radio panel game show Round Britain Quiz. He also introduced BBC radio's The Brains Trust and Twenty Questions. From 1951, he became part of the postwar British way of life with his appearances as a grumpy panelist in the highly successful, long-running television panel game show What's My Line? Every week he entertained and shocked viewers with his intellect, sharp wit, and rudeness. He often bullied innocent guests if they gave evasive answers or did not speak perfect English. After one clash between Harding and chair Eamonn Andrews, the BBC received more than 175 phone calls and 6 telegrams from viewers complaining about Harding's appalling behavior. For over a decade, What's My Line? was an institution on British television, and Harding became a national celebrity.

     In 1960 Harding agreed to be interrogated by journalist John Freeman on a live television interview program called Face to Face. Harding was reduced to tears in front of millions of viewers when Freeman asked about the recent death of his mother. This was, in fact, a deliberate and tactless attempt to "out" him as gay at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain. Harding admitted nothing, but clearly the interview was a distressing experience for him. He confessed on-screen that "my bad manners and bad temper are quite indefensible ... I'm almost unfit to live with ... I'm profoundly lonely ... I should be very glad to be dead." John Freeman later admitted his lack of sensitivity, but Harding died shortly after the program's transmission. He was 53.

     Owen Spencer Thomas described him on BBC Ra­dio London's documentary Gilbert Harding in 1979 as "that enigmatic man ... [he] was bad tempered and rude, yet his friends counted him as one of the kindest, and most generous."