Background
He was born in Tyldesley, Lancashire. Yates was born into a show business family. His mother booked stage acts.
He was born in Tyldesley, Lancashire. Yates was born into a show business family. His mother booked stage acts.
He was the creator, presenter and producer of Yorkshire Television’s religious programme Stars on Sunday. His family moved to Llandudno when he was five. After leaving school, Yates worked as a Cinema Organist.
After the war he worked for British Broadcasting Corporation Television as a freelance designer and joined the British Broadcasting Corporation on the production side in 1949.
In later life, he lived in the village of Rowen, near Conwy in North Wales. In 1968, he became Head of Children"s programmes for Yorkshire Television.
The following year, he began hosting Stars on Sunday. Yates would introduce the show seated at an electric organ – placed in front of a stained-glass window.
One of his many observations was, "We can"t see round the bend in the road, but God can." The programme attracted many special guests, including Harry Secombe, Dame Anna Neagle, and Gracie Fields.
He was quoted as wanting stars to appear on the programme as that is what he thought would persuade viewers to tune in. Amid the ensuing furore, Yates had to be smuggled from Yorkshire Television"s studio complex in Leeds in the boot of a car. A few years after his death, a deoxyribonucleic acid test revealed that Paula Yates" biological father was not Jess Yates, but the television presenter, Hughie Green.