STEVE WRIGHT

'Stephen Richard (Steve) Wright' (born August 26 1954 in Greenwich, London) is a radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom. He currently presents the afternoon show on BBC Radio 2. He rose to prominence in the early-1980s while working with Peter Dickson on BBC Radio 1.

Contents

Early career

''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' on BBC Radio 1

"Love the show"

Characters and sketches

''The Breakfast Show'' and beyond

Current work

Bibliography

See also

Early career

The son of a company director, Wright was educated at Eastwood High School, Essex. He started broadcasting in the 1970s on Reading's Radio 210 alongside Mike Read. In 1979 he joined Radio Luxembourg, and then BBC Radio 1 in 1980, presenting a Saturday Evening show, then presenting a Saturday morning show before moving on to present ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' from 1981.
In 1984, Wright also took over a Sunday morning show entitled ''Steve Wright on Sunday'', which meant he presented weekday afternoons Mondays–Thursdays only, with Mark Page and Paul Jordan presenting Friday afternoon's show. In 1986 his Sunday Morning show ended and he returned to five afternoons a week.

''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' on BBC Radio 1

The show became best known in its early years for its cast of telephone characters which were created and performed by Gavin McCoy, Peter Dickson, Richard Easter and Phil Cornwell. The show went out of its way to be irreverent, including regular stories taken from the ''Weekly World News''. The success of the show even led to a hit single, "I'll Be Back", released under the name "Arnee & The Terminators. In later years the style of the show charged significantly, dumping most of the characters and instead having a "zoo" format, with spoof guests, comedy sketches, a "posse" of producers and radio staff who would join in with the DJ links and whoop and cheer every minor announcement.

"Love the show"

A key feature of Wright's radio shows are letters from his listeners. Almost all of them feature the phrase "Love the show". It is not clear whether the listeners include it to ensure that Wright will read the letters, or if he adds it himself. Wright's initials have been adapted into the expression "SWs to you", an abbreviation used by correspondents of fellow Radio 2 presenter Sarah Kennedy. It means "Love the show", after the oft-quoted phrase. Other Radio 2 presenters have also parodied it: Terry Wogan often bemoans the lack of such encouragement in his listener correspondence, occasionally reading out listeners' letters which say "Love Steve Wright's show", while the listeners of Chris Evans have also begun adding "Love the ''snow''" to their messages.

Characters and sketches

Some of the characters and sketches created for the show included:

★ Mr Angry (from Purley): usually to be heard ranting down the phone line, ending with "...it makes me so angry... I could ''throw the phone down!''" followed by the sound of the receiver crashing to the floor.

★ Diamond Geezer: supposed DJ/mixer, and voice for the track "Mr Spoons"

★ The "Down-the-Pan" Daleks: two 'retired' Daleks in improbable domestic situations

★ 'Easy Life'

★ Dr Fish-Filleter: source of much innuendo about fishy fingers, etc. Had his own 'jingle' sung by Steve and his Posse when the interview had ended ("Fillet of Fish, Fillet of Fish. O' Give me Fish to Fillet!").

★ Edward the Garrulous Fencing Champion: his catchphrase is "I epee you"

★ Mr Food

★ Gervais the Hairdresser

★ Hopeless the Weather Girl: a parody of the brand of 'bimbo'-esque weather girls seen on British television in the late 1980s.

★ Maggot - an odd character with a very high pitched voice.

★ 'Mick and Keef': not the real Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but impersonations (played by Phil Cornwell, who later did the characters in Stella Street). Bill Wyman also made occasional appearances.

★ Linda Lust: her catchphrase is "Spatula", said in a sultry, sensual voice.

★ Llama Man

★ Motorcycle Courier - who left his motorbike running in the background and would scream at the top of his voice "SIGN 'ERE PLEASE!" from within his motorcycle helmet continuously regardless of what was asked of him.

★ Mr Mad: , would phone in, refer to Steve as "Pal" and would ask "Guess where I'm livin' today?" then proceed to name some bizarre, improbable locations (like inside the mace of the House of Commons or inside Paul McCartney's guitar etc). Then would end the phone call with a series of vocal 'whistles and beeps' and his catchphrase was "Ravin' mad, pal!".

★ Mr Paranoid

★ The Parking Man - constantly shouting two instructions 'You're Alright, You're Alright' and 'Left Hand Down' to someone trying to reverse their van into a parking space outside the 'window' of the studio. Would sometimes end in a calamatous crashing noise followed by silence and then 'You're Alright!'.

★ Pretentious Music Journalist: supposedly based on a number of 1980s rock/pop reviewers (perhaps especially Simon Reynolds, David Stubbs and Paul Oldfield of Melody Maker), he reads a little too much into a band's songs with over-complex and artistically pretentious monologues where a simple explanation would suffice, e.g., "They generate a sonic cathedral of sound" means "loud".

★ Sid the Manager: supposedly Steve Wright's agent, a genial but often confused old duffer

★ Voiceover Man

★ The Perv: often heard tapping at the studio window calling "Yoohoo! Hello Stevie! I'm in the corridor..." and describing his startling attire at the time.

★ Damien the Social Worker

★ An unknown Irish lady who frequently told Steve "you've got the perfect face for Radio"

''The Breakfast Show'' and beyond

Wright moved to the Breakfast Show in 1994, but resigned in 1995 due to differences with the Radio 1 management after the station was restructured by new controller Matthew Bannister, which led to many of the more established DJs leaving, or being sacked, around this time. He was picked up by the new commercial station Talk Radio, where he presented a Saturday morning show & also presented a syndicated show on Sunday mornings on various commercial stations in the UK.
He returned to the BBC in 1996, when he joined BBC Radio 2, presenting ''Steve Wright's Saturday Show'' on Saturdays 10 am-1 pm and ''Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs'' on Sundays 9–11 am. In 1999, Steve took over Radio 2's weekday afternoon show (from Ed Stewart) and he is also the voice of the retro pop show on BBC television, ''Top of the Pops 2''.

Current work

Wright can currently be heard on Radio 2 every weekday afternoon in ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' from 2 pm until 5 pm, and on Sunday mornings 9–11 am presenting ''Sunday Love Songs''.
Current afternoon show features include:

★ "Ask Elvis": an Elvis impersonator (Mitch Benn) answers questions from listeners, particularly those of a scientific or technical nature, which the real Elvis would have been unlikely to know, and questions that, if you were given the chance to ask Elvis anything, you probably wouldn't ask.

★ "Factoids": snippits of bizarre trivia

★ "The Big Quiz": a general knowledge quiz in which a challenger takes on the current champion (referred to as the 'champio' or 'champnio') in order to win prizes. Each contestant has a time limit to answer questions, following which the round ends following the first incorrect answer from that contestant. The quiz is currently suspended following the review announced into how the BBC runs its competitions.

★ Celebrity interviews (two in each programme)
Wright is regularly joined by sidekicks Tim Smith and Janey Lee Grace (both radio DJs in their own right, and often heard as solo holiday relief presenters on Radio 2), plus traffic reporter Sally Boazman (whom Wright calls 'Sally Traffic') and the Old Woman. The latter's identity has never been revealed, though it is apparent that she is genuinely a senior citizen and not a younger actress (despite her vocal similarity to Wendy Richard).
It has been rumoured that she is actress Edna Doré. During the 14 May 2007 edition of ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'', guest Shane Ritchie referred to Old Woman as Nana Moon: a character from the soap ''Eastenders'' played by Hilda Braid.

Bibliography

★ Steve Wright ''Steve Wright's Book of Factoids'' , HarperCollins Publishers (UK), (2005) ISBN 0-00-720660-7

See also

★ BBC Radio 2: Steve Wright in the Afternoon

★ Radio Rewind: Steve Wright - profile, pics and audio clips

★ 'Sid the Manager' site

★ 'Janey Lee Grace' site