Gyles Brandreth

Brandreth is a former European Monopoly champion, and president of the Association of British Scrabble Players, having organised the first British National Scrabble Championship in 1971.

Brandreth married Michèle Brown, a writer and publisher, in Westminster in 1973. They reside in Barnes, Southwest London and have three grown-up children: Benet, a barrister; Saethryd, a journalist; and Aphra, a former government economist and now financial director of a veterinary business, and who is mother of their first grandchild, Kiyo. Aphra was the Conservative candidate in the 2019 United Kingdom general election for the constituency of Kingston and Surbiton, but did not win the seat.

He is also the president of the Oscar Wilde Society. The society was founded in September 1990 by a group of fans of Wilde and his work. It is a non-profit organisation that aims to increase knowledge, enjoyment and study of Wilde's life, personality and works. It organises lectures, readings and discussions, as well as visits to places connected with him.

Brandreth was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), representing the City of Chester, from 1992 to 1997. He proposed a Private Member's Bill which became law as the Marriage Act 1994. In 1995, he was appointed to a junior ministerial position as a Lord of the Treasury, with his role being essentially that of a whip.

Brandreth has kept a diary. In 1999, he published his diaries between 1990 and 1997, written during his days as a politician, called Breaking the Code.

He later published a book of his diaries from his time as a whip, Breaking the Code. After his parliamentary career, he broadcast some of his reminiscences on BBC radio as Brandreth on Office and The Brandreth Rules in 2001, 2003 and 2005.

Brandreth hosted the short-lived game show Public Opinion in 2004. In 2006 he appeared on the television series That Mitchell and Webb Look, on the fictional game show "Numberwang", satirising his appearances in Countdown's Dictionary Corner. In 2007 he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio play I.D.. From July to August 2009 he hosted the game show Knowitalls on BBC Two. In April 2010 he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Vote Now Show. He also made a cameo appearance as himself in Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, in the episode "The Final Countdown".

In September 2004, Brandreth's book on the marriage of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage was published. In July 2005, he published a second book on the Royal Family, entitled Charles and Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair, which concerns the three-decade love affair between Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

He appeared on Room 101 in 2005, while Paul Merton was host, successfully banishing the Royal Variety Performance and the British honours system into Room 101, saying that he would never accept an honour himself. In 2013 he clarified that position, stating that he had "no fundamental objection to the honours system", and that he selected the honours system for Room 101 because he could "tell funny stories about it".

Brandreth hosts an annual Oscar Wilde party to celebrate the writer's birth. Guests have included Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Derek Jacobi, Julian Fellowes and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall The venues are often places of interest in Wilde's life, for example the Langham Hotel where A Picture of Dorian Gray was commissioned. In August 2005, he appeared in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Edinburgh Festival.

In 2006, Brandreth appeared in the Radio 4 comedy programme Living with the Enemy which he co-wrote with comedian Nick Revell, in which they appear as a former Conservative government minister and a former comedian. In 2010 he broadcast a Radio 4 documentary about his great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Brandreth, the inventor of a medicine called "Brandreth's Pills". He is the host of the Radio 4 comedy panel show Wordaholics, first aired on 20 February 2012. He appeared on the Radio 4 programme The Museum of Curiosity in August 2017, to which he donated a button that was once owned by a famous actor.

He has appeared on Countdown more than 300 times, in Dictionary Corner, including Carol Vorderman's final episode in 2008, making more appearances than any other guest. He also appeared on TV-am. He was known for his collection of jumpers, of which some were sold in a charity auction in 1993.

A frequent guest on BBC television panel shows, he has appeared on five episodes of QI and six episodes of Have I Got News for You. He has also appeared in episodes of Channel 5's The Gadget Show, and is a contributor to the BBC's early evening programme The One Show. He has appeared in two episodes of the TV adaptation of Just A Minute, as part of the show's 45th anniversary. In 2013 he was a guest on the Matt Lucas Awards.

In August 2014, Brandreth was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

In 2014, Brandreth was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Chester and was appointed the university's chancellor in December 2016.

He is an after-dinner speaker and held the world record for the longest continuous after-dinner speech, twelve-and-a-half hours, done as a charity stunt. With his wife, he founded a Teddy bear museum. Located in Stratford-upon-Avon for 18 years, it was relocated to the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, London. In 2016, the museum moved to Newby Hall in Yorkshire. He is a patron of the National Piers Society and vice-president of charity Fields in Trust (formerly the National Playing Fields Association).

In 2019, Brandreth appeared on series 1 of Celebrity Gogglebox alongside Sheila Hancock. In 2020, it was announced Brandreth would be returning for Series 2, however this time alongside Maureen Lipman.

In April 2019, Brandreth began co-hosting a podcast titled Something Rhymes With Purple alongside friend and colleague Susie Dent. The podcast discusses aspects of the English language such as historic or unusual words and their origins, as well as the origins of popular phrases and sayings.