Johnny Ball Biography, Age, Parents, Wife, Children, Net Worth

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Johnny Ball is an English television personality, a popularizer of mathematics and the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball.

Ball was born in Bristol and went to Kingswood Primary School on the city’s eastern outskirts. His family afterwards relocated to Bolton, Lancashire, where he attended Bolton County Grammar School. He graduated from high school with two “O” Levels, one in maths and one in geography.

Johnny Ball was called up for national service and served in the Royal Air Force for three years. He was assigned to Wales as a radar operator before being transferred to Germany to monitor the Hamburg-Berlin aviation corridor.

Ball began his entertainment career as a Butlin’s Redcoat and worked in northern clubs and cabaret. Johnny was named after John Ball, a Bolton Wanderers player from 1950 until 1958, and the nickname stuck.

From the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s, Ball was a frequent fixture on children’s television, hosting various series of science and technology programs aimed at children (including Think of a Number; Think Again; Think Backwards; Think…This Way, and Johnny Ball Reveals All).

Beginning in the year 1967 and continuing into the 1970s and beyond, he was also one of the hosts of the pre-school program Play School. Ball created jokes for several shows, including Crackerjack, in addition to performing on TV. Except for the ITV show…Reveals All, all of these shows aired on the BBC. Ball’s shows were notable for introducing scientific and technological concepts to young people in an interesting and understandable manner.