Kenneth Horne (February 27, 1907 - February 14, 1969) was a British comedian and businessman. He starred in the BBC radio programmes Much Binding in the Marsh, (with Richard Murdoch), Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne - in the latter he was given a number of strange names. As well as being an excellent comedian he was also chairman of Triplex Glass and Chad Valley Toys, until he gave up business due to a stroke and concentrated on his comedy. He was particularly close to Kenneth Williams, who looked on him as a substitute father. He also did some TV advertising and he was in the series Horne A'plenty. He hosted a game show called Treasure Hunt - not to be confused with the later Kenneth Kendall / Anneka Rice show of the same name - on Westward Television. He died whilst standing up to make a speech, just after the fourth series of Round the Horne was completed. A fifth series had been commissioned, but it was decided that the show could not continue without its star.
Since December 2002, editions of Round the Horne may be heard at 19:30 UK time (= GMT during the winter months) each Wednesday on the digital service called BBC 7.
