David Astle

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David Astle
Born (1961-11-09) 9 November 1961 (age 62)
Sydney, Australia
Nationality Australian
Occupation(s)TV personality, radio host, writer, playwright, crossword compiler
Known for Letters and Numbers , Newspaper crosswords

David Astle (born 9 November 1961) is an Australian TV personality and radio host, and writer of non-fiction, fiction and plays. He also co-hosted the SBS Television (SBS) show Letters and Numbers , as the dictionary expert, in company with Richard Morecroft and Lily Serna, [1] a role to which he returned for Celebrity Letters and Numbers in 2021.

Contents

Career

Astle's cryptic crosswords, appearing under the name "DA" in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald (for which he also writes the "Wordplay" section), have developed a large following which includes musician Holly Throsby [2] and actor Geoffrey Rush. Rush called him "the Sergeant Pepper of cryptic crosswords". [3] In 2011, his portrait called "DA" painted by artist Amanda Marburg, was shortlisted for the Archibald Prize.

Astle's 2013 book Cluetopia: The story of 100 years of the crossword celebrates the centenary of the crossword with a chapter for each year. Astle is a three times winner of the Banjo Paterson Writing Award. [4] He won third prize in The Age Short Story Award in 1990 and his first novel, Marzipan Plan, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In 2001 he won the James Joyce Suspended Sentence Award for short fiction. [5] His play Cowboy Humour was part of the Short and Sweet play festival in 2008, [6] which has previously featured Astle's plays including The Gentleman Had An Axe in 2007 [7] and The Mercy Kitchen. [8]

Astle has taught journalism at RMIT University and in 2004 was awarded a DSC Teaching Award for best sessional teacher. [9] In 2013, he helped create the word "phub" (a portmanteau of phone and snub), for when someone is ignored in favour of a mobile phone. [10]

Radio & Television

In 2010 Astle was part of Letters and Numbers, an Australian reboot of the UK series Countdown. Astle was the dictionary expert alongside host Richard Morecroft and maths expert Lily Serna. The show was produced by Shine Australia and ran for two seasons on SBS TV.

From 2015 Astle was a fill-in host on ABC Radio Melbourne as well as a regular word expert on ABC TV's News Breakfast .

In December 2019, Astle was appointed as host of the Evenings radio program on ABC Radio Melbourne and ABC Local Radio in Victoria replacing Lindy Burns. [11] Throughout 2019 Astle filled in for Burns whilst she was on long service leave.

In 2021 Celebrity Letters and Numbers was created with Astle returning as dictionary expert alongside Serna and new host Michael Hing. [12] The show is currently in its third season and has featured guests including Nakkaih Lui, Aaron Chen and Benjamin Law. [13]

Bibliography

Novels

Non-fiction

For children

Plays

Related Research Articles

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Letters and Numbers is an Australian game show on SBS. It is hosted by former newsreader Richard Morecroft, co-hosted by David Astle and Lily Serna. Although it is based on the French game show Des chiffres et des lettres, its structure is similar to the UK version of the show, Countdown - with the titular difference being used to avoid confusion with the Australian music program Countdown.

Lily Serna is an Australian mathematician and television presenter, best known for co-presenting the SBS game shows Letters and Numbers (2010−2012) and Celebrity Letters and Numbers (2021−), as well as the cooking show Destination Flavour (2012). She works as a data analyst for Atlassian in Sydney.

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Celebrity Letters and Numbers is an Australian comedy panel game show on SBS which premiered on 2 October 2021. It is a revived version of the game show Letters and Numbers, which aired on SBS from 2010 to 2012, with an altered format with celebrity contestants competing rather than members of the public. Co-hosts David Astle and Lily Serna returned from the original series, while comedian, journalist and actor Michael Hing replaced presenter Richard Morecroft as host.

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References

  1. ↑ "Programs".
  2. ↑ Carew, Anthony (11 July 2008). "A way with words". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  3. ↑ "Rush Hour www.theage.com.au". The Age. Melbourne. 8 March 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  4. ↑ List of Award Winner in the Orange Wiki: www.theorangewiki.orange.nsw.gov.au, Accessed 22 August 2021. Bio at the Australian Literature Website: www.austlit.edu.au, Accessed 22 August 2021
  5. ↑ "A mind field of puzzling pleasure - theage.com.au". The Age. Melbourne. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  6. ↑ "Week 3 program | Short and Sweet". Shortandsweet.org. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ↑ "Shortlist: N-Z | Short+Sweet". shortandsweet.org. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "DSC Teaching Award Winners 2004". RMIT. 1 October 2004. Archived from the original on 12 September 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  10. ↑ "Twerk, selfie and bitcoin, our popular words of 2013 - ABC (None) - Australian Broadcasting Corporation". Australian Broadcasting Corporation .
  11. ↑ "ABC Radio Melbourne announces 2019 line-up". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . 5 December 2018.
  12. ↑ "SBS Presents Celebrity Letters & Numbers". 2 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Celebrity Letters and Numbers". IMDb .
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