Profile of Simon Mayo on Famous Like Me

Simon Mayo (born 21st September 1958) is one of the most recognised and respected voices of radio in the UK, currently presenting a daily afternoon programme on BBC Radio Five Live.

Early career

Mayo graduated from Warwick University with an academic degree in history and politics where he had been a presenter on the student radio station, Radio Warwick. He then began a four year stint as a presenter with BBC Radio Nottingham, before joining the national pop network BBC Radio 1 in 1986, presenting a two hour Saturday Evening show from 7.30-9.30pm, taking over the Saturday & Sunday Early Morning slots from 6-8am from October 1987, moving to the Monday - Thursday evening show in January 1988 from 7.30-10pm before progressing to the Weekday Breakfast show in May 1988.

Waking the nation

His confident, mildly cynical style of articulate music presentation quickly earned him many admirers and within two years of joining the station he had become the host of the station's flagship breakfast show.

Mayo spent five years waking up the nation and the programme remains arguably the most consistent breakfast programme which Radio 1 has ever had. Throughout his tenure, Mayo was joined by news anchor Rod McKenzie and went through a series of sidekick weather girls, including Carol Dooley, Sybil Ruscoe, Jakki Brambles and Dianne Oxberry. The show's producer was Ric Blaxill, though most mornings he would often pretend to be a celebrity acting as a 'guest producer'. often without attempting even slightly to impersonate the celebrity in question.

The programme became known for various successful features, including a throwback to Mayo's student days in the daily almanac On This Day In History, famously soundtracked by a looped version of George Michael's I Want Your Sex; and the long-running cryptic game The Identik-Hit Quiz, where Mayo and his cohorts would 'act' a short scene which cyptically led listeners to the title of a hit song.

He also patented his hugely successful Confessions feature where members of the public sought absolution for their "sins" (most of which were frivolous or humorous) and it became a moderate television success in later years. Mayo had already presented the dilemma show Scruples for BBC television, and had joined his Radio 1 colleagues on the host roster for Top Of The Pops.

Thanks to endless plays from Mayo, several unlikely hit singles reached the UK charts, including Kinky Boots by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman; Donald Where's Yer Troosers by Andy Stewart; and Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, sung and written by Eric Idle. For helping Monty Python have a hit with the latter (13 years after it first appeared on the soundtrack to The Life Of Brian), Idle presented Mayo with a model bare foot, in the style of the animated version which used to end the opening titles to the TV show.

When Mayo's wife Hilary, a producer whom he met at BBC Radio Nottingham, gave birth to their son Ben in 1990, Mayo took an extended period of paternity leave, becoming one of the first high-profile males to do so as the trend for fathers to spend more time at home with newborn children gathered pace. The couple have subsequently had two more children.

Mid-mornings - then back to breakfast

Mayo officially gave up the breakfast show in 1993, though he had been on another extended period of paternity leave when the announcement was made, and his stand-in Mark Goodier was confirmed as his permanent replacement. Mayo moved on to the mid-morning slot from 9am-12midday, and survived the huge cull of a long-standing presenters which Radio 1 underwent the same year on the arrival of controller Matthew Bannister and his wish to rebrand the station as younger and more cutting edge.

Mayo settled professionally and uncontroversially into his new show and stayed there for eight years, though briefly returned to the breakfast show when the maverick Chris Evans was dismissed after one absence too many. This short spell back on breakfast was seen by many as a breath of fresh air, but both Mayo and Radio 1 ruled out the possibilities of a permanent return to the flagship programme. On his first morning as breakfast stand-in, he read out an email from a man who had emigrated to New Zealand four years earlier and had arrived back in the UK that morning, and was "delighted to hear you're still doing the breakfast show".

5 Live

In 2001, after 15 years with Radio 1, Mayo announced he was leaving to join sister station Five Live to present an afternoon programme, every weekday from 1-4pm, and there he remains. He was on air when the 9/11 disasters occurred, and received huge acclaim for the way he handled the station's reaction to the atrocity.

The programme generally combines topical debates, interviews and reviews. It comes live from Westminster each Wednesday for live coverage of Prime Minister's Question Time, with discussion and debate afterwards with political correspondents and MPs. The programme also features Mayo's old Radio 1 sidekick Mark Kermode waspishly reviewing the new movie releases each Friday afternoon.

Other projects

Mayo still keeps his eye in with music presentation by hosting the Album Chart show each week for BBC Radio 2, Mondays 7-8pm.

His TV work has been less frequent lately, though he did briefly present the BBC show Winning Lines as part of the corporation's National Lottery output.

Miscellaneous

Away from his work, Mayo is known for his love of Tottenham Hotspur and his devout Christian faith.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Simon Mayo