Background
Batey was born in Brampton, Cumberland, and educated at the White House School, Brampton.
Batey was born in Brampton, Cumberland, and educated at the White House School, Brampton.
After appearing in clubs as a ventriloquist he made his first television appearance in 1958 as an interviewer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1961 he moved to the newly established Border Television, where he became known as "a classless hero who blazed a trail in popular television" He is best known for hosting the original 450-episode run of the game show Mr. and Mistress, which was for many years the only programme produced by Border Television that was networked nationally. He also hosted the talk show Look Who"s Talking. He was officially Assistant Controller of Programmes for Border Television but, like some other Independent Television regional executives, including Jack Hargreaves at Southern Television, and Brian Connell at Anglia Television, he continued to present programmes.
Batey also hosted, another game show produced by Border in Carlisle, Cumbria.
Contestants on the show tried to give ten consecutive correct True or False answers to a series of statements. Contestants were eliminated if they gave three wrong answers in a row, or a total of ten wrong answers.
In 2006, it was confirmed that Batey would be working as a consultant (including writing some of the questions) on the latest version of Mr. and Mistress on ITV1.