David Franklin (broadcaster)

[2] After war-time service Franklin appeared at Sadler's Wells in 1946 as Sir James Pinchbeck (Cancian) in the first performance in England of I quattro rusteghi and then joined the new resident company at Covent Garden as principal bass until a throat condition ended his singing career in 1951.

He created the role of Mars in the premiere of Arthur Bliss's The Olympians, and in the Italian repertoire he sang Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Ramfis in Aida and Colline in La bohème.

[2][6] The Times commented, "in all these parts his resonant, deep bass of uncommon range and his height and dignity of bearing were great assets".

He also became the chairman of the long-running radio panel game Twenty Questions from 1970 to 1972, in succession to Stewart MacPherson, Gilbert Harding and Kenneth Horne.

[2] In 1970 he published an autobiography, Basso Cantante, which Alan Blyth described in The Musical Times as "an outspoken, wise, amusing book from which both singers and the layman can learn much".

tall, clean shaven white man in white 18th-century wig and 18th-century aristocrat's costume
Franklin as Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier , Covent Garden, 1947