Routh was born on 24 November 1927 in Gosport, Hampshire, the son of a British Army colonel, and spent much of his early childhood in Palestine.
Routh had two sons from his first marriage (to the film designer Nandi Heckroth, in 1948), had a relationship in 1969 with the wife of Paul Hamlyn, and then another with the oil heiress Olga Deterding.
Following a long dispute with the American lawyers of Allen Funt as to who held the rights to Candid Camera, Routh moved on to new fields, working with John Birt, later director general of the BBC, for Granada TV, along with Germaine Greer and Kenny Everett in Nice Time.
The British version of Candid Camera returned in 1974, starring Peter Dulay, Arthur Atkins and Sheila Bernette.
The humour owed much to the apparent seriousness, and to the affectionate parody of the connoisseurship of The Good Food Guide (then as now a trove of information on fine eating).
Nor have we at any time accepted hospitality, but paid cash for all chargeable facilities we have used.Loos are rated by the application of stars, three-star establishments being "worth travelling out of your way to experience".
[3] He exhibited regularly in Jamaica, Italy and the United States;[citation needed] as of early 2008, his paintings were also on display in what had been his favourite restaurant, San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place, London.