Career

Born in Canada, he worked for radio station CFAC in Calgary before relocating to Europe. He was a DJ on Radio Luxembourg, and later on the British Broadcasting Corporation Light Programme, Radio One, and Radio Two. He presented many popular programmes for the British Broadcasting Corporation, including the Top Ten Game produced by Johnny Beerling, a midweek show which toured the country inviting audiences of 200 to vote for their favourite discs of the week from 1965.

Each week David would play ten new releases, followed by the ten most popular songs from the previous week, together with a Second Chance Disc, which had previously been played but did not register enough votes to make the Top Ten.

The show ran until it was dropped in early 1966. Around 1958-1959 he was the host of Manchester-based Granada Television"s quiz show Concentration and also hosted the children"s quiz show Junior Criss Cross Quiz.

In 1970, Gell was the commentator for the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest. He had previously provided the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio commentary for the 1965 contest.

Gell later presented another "voting" show for the British Broadcasting Corporation on Radio Two, namely European People’s Jury, where teenagers from several European countries would sit in judgement of two songs from each participating nation.

The programme aired monthly and would typically feature the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Finland. David had a toned down mid-Atlantic accent, and a warm, professional style, with strong audience rapport. By 1980 David Gell had returned to broadcasting in his native Canada where he remained until retiring in the 2000s.

C. Gell"s company Golden Muse Productions, which specialises in musical theatre.