His camp stand-up act consisted mainly of anecdotes about a cast of imaginary friends including Everard, Apricot Lil and Slack Alice.

[2] When Grayson was ten days old, his mother, Ethel White, arranged for him to be fostered by Alice and Jim Hammonds in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

[3] He recounted how his "one true love" had been his best friend from school days, Tom Proctor, who was killed at the age of 21 at the Battle of Monte Cassino during the Second World War.

Grayson said that he never got over this loss, and he is not known to have had any other significant relationships (albeit one biographer recalls there was "a brief smokescreen" when he was said to be engaged to Crossroads actress Noele Gordon).

Grayson's biographer, Tony Nicholson, observes that "many gay people acknowledge how important his contribution to camp culture was, and how his mass popularity did perhaps help spearhead greater acceptance of the LGBT community.

"[3] Grayson left school at the age of 14 and began working professionally as a supporting drag act on the comedy club circuit.

[13] Grayson's popularity peaked when he was hired by the BBC to present the Saturday night show The Generation Game in 1978, as the replacement for Bruce Forsyth.

Grayson decided to leave The Generation Game in 1982 while it was still relatively successful, in the expectation that the BBC would offer him another high-profile Saturday night show; this did not materialise.

Grayson went into unintentional semi-retirement, living alone at his house in Nuneaton with his pet dogs, although he did return to television to present the game show Sweethearts for ITV in 1987.

But his real appeal was that of a valued neighbour perceptively observing the details of everyday life and commenting on it across the garden fence, creating an emotional intimacy in a society starting to fragment.

[19]In the 2023 ITVX miniseries Nolly, which dramatised the life of his friend and former Crossroads colleague Noele Gordon, Grayson was portrayed by Mark Gatiss.