Peter Llewellyn-Jones has died at the age of 76. The British Deaf Association said on 19 August that he was a BSL champion and a strong ally of the Deaf community for over 50 years.
That span matters because his work reached both children's television and Deaf linguistic rights, two worlds that rarely sit together in one career. The association called him a visionary leader and pioneering advocate for linguistic rights.
The Riddlers and ITV
Llewellyn-Jones was best known for starring in The Riddlers, which ran for 224 episodes between 1989 and 1998. Victoria Williams played Marjorie Dawe, while he played Montgomery Lancelot Grimley, giving the show a recognisable core for viewers who followed ITV's children's output across the period.
He also hosted Our World, an ITV schools programme that ran throughout the '80s and '90s, and Insight, which produced short stories and sketches for Deaf and hard of hearing young people in the early 1980s. He later hosted the show Listening Eye, extending the same mix of presentation and access work across TV.
British Deaf Association tribute
The British Deaf Association said, "Peter had a long and valued association with the BDA, supporting our work and contributing to BDA events over many decades." It added, "From the early BDA Summer Schools through to wider national Deaf community events, he played an important role in improving communication and access between Deaf and hearing people."
For readers who knew him through The Riddlers, the sharper picture is broader: he was not only a familiar television presence, but also a teacher who played a foundational role in the development of higher-education courses for BSL-English interpreters. That is why his death lands as more than a cast-list update; it removes one of the long-running bridges between children's television and Deaf advocacy.
Peter Llewellyn-Jones legacy
His death on 19 August closes a career that moved from children's TV to education and community access without ever separating those parts of his work. The loss now sits with the Deaf community first, because that is where his influence had the longest reach.
