David Nixon was the first magician I was aware of. His heyday was on British TV in the 1960s and 1970s

I came across this compilation on YouTube. It is astonishing and hilarious, not always for the best reasons either! Check out the control-to-top in full close-up at 02.50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K7gcTvTap8

His style was what you might call "genial". Nowadays we'd say "dull and under-scripted." There were no jokes, and it was all kind of old-school formal. ("How do you do, my name's Nixon..."). Yet he was immensely popular, and pretty much the biggest name in British magic, certainly on TV, till Paul Daniels came along in the late 70s.