Bill Buckley (William Anthony Buckley, born January 8, 1959 in Birmingham, United Kingdom) is a former That's Life! co-presenter and occasional television personality, who is currently a presenter on London talk radio station LBC 97.3. January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... LBC 97. ... For alternate meanings of GMT, see GMT (disambiguation). ... Talk radio is a radio format which features discussion of topical issues. ... BBC Southern Counties Radio is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Surrey and Sussex. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... Thats Life! was a television magazine-style series on BBC between 1973 and 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... A radio station is an audio (sound) broadcasting service, traditionally broadcast through the air as radio waves (a form of electromagnetic radiation) from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. ... LBC 97. ...

Career

Bill’s big broadcasting break came in 1982. While working as a newspaper reporter in his native West midlands, he was chosen from thousands of hopefuls to present the celebrated consumer programme, That’s Life, on BBC1 with Esther Rantzen. His mother had entered him for the job without his knowing. Thats Life! was a television magazine-style series on BBC between 1973 and 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the oldest United Kingdom, and indeed, the world. ... Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born June 22, 1940), is a British journalist and television presenter who is best known for her long stint in Thats Life! and her activities as founder of the charity ChildLine. ...

After three years, he left to become a reporter for the BBC’s Holiday Programme, and spent the next six years travelling the world. Other TV appearances include Call My Bluff, Blankety Blank, All Star Secrets, Songs of Praise, Children in Need, and a huge variety of regional work in the south for Meridian Television on subjects as diverse as consumer affairs, politics and amateur film-making. Call My Bluff is a British game show between two teams of three contestants. ... Blankety Blank was a British game show based on the American game show Match Game. ... All Star Secrets was an NBC daytime game show the aired from January 8, 1979 - August 10 of the same year. ... Songs of Praise is a BBC television programme based on religion and ethics, based around traditional Christian hymns. ... Pudsey is the teddy bear logo of Children in Need, created by designer Joanna Ball and named after Balls home town, Pudsey, in West Yorkshire, England. ... Meridian is the ITV station for the South and South East of England. ...

From 1989, he has also presented daily radio shows for numerous commercial and BBC stations in the South, London and Manchester. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Bill’s acting experience includes playing Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at Leatherhead. He also toured in the black comedy Widow’s Weeds, and starred in numerous pantomimes. The Christmas before last, for example, he played King in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Theatre Royal, Brighton with 60s icon Twiggy and Peak Practice’s Simon Shepherd. Leatherhead is a small town in Surrey, England, on the River Mole, Surrey. ... Illustration by Arthur Rackham from a 1918 English Fairy Tales, by Flora Annie Steel Jack and the Beanstalk is an English fairy tale, closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. ... Brighton is located on the south coast of England, and together with its immediate neighbour Hove forms the city of Brighton and Hove. ... Twiggy (born Lesley Hornby September 19, 1949) is an English supermodel, actress, and singer, now also known by her married name of Twiggy Lawson. ...

Bill was senior continuity announcer for Channel 5 Television from its launch for five-and-a-half years. His irreverent style proved influential throughout the industry. He is particularly well remembered by many for his wonderfully camp commentary over the closing credits of the channel's late-night/early-morning run of Prisoner: Cell Block H. Channel 5, as a television channel, may refer to: Channel 5 of MediaCorp TV, Singapore; UK television broadcaster Five, which was formerly known as Channel 5; Canale 5 in Italy This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Prisoner was an Australian television soap opera (which aired under the title Prisoner: Cell Block H in the UK and the United States, and as Caged Women in Canada). ...

Bill has also written a hit song. He provided both the words and music for Su Pollard’s number two hit single, Starting Together. Back to the present and, on top of his radio commitments, Bill regularly reviews the national Press on “Breakfast” on BBC2, BBC News 24 and Sky News. Susan Pollard (born November 7, 1949 in Nottingham) is a flamboyant English comedy actress known as Su Pollard best known for her roles in the sitcoms Hi-de-Hi! and You Rang, MLord?. After performing in several West End musicals and coming second in a heat of Opportunity Knocks... BBC News 24 is the BBCs 24 hour rolling news television channel in the United Kingdom. ...

In an age of media mediocrity, Bill Buckley remains as one of Britain's most amiable and original broadcasters.

LBC Radio Show

Bill’s voice should be particularly familiar to LBC 97.3’s listeners because he has filled in for many of the station’s presenters for several years now. He also has his own show every Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning from 1.00 until 5.00am. (Although throughout 2006, he also filled in for the weekday overnight presenter(s) on many occasions.)

Bill's presenting style is genial and relaxed. Unlike many other presenters, who prefer to keep the majority of their personal lives separate from their shows, Bill often shares what has been happening in his personal life (or at very least selected highlights of it), and typically opens his show with a lengthy monologue update of what he has been up to. One particular saga that listeners followed with him through 2006, was his meeting of an American man identified as Harry or H McC, and Bill's whirlwind romance with him (Bill is openly gay), including a much anticipated trip to the States to visit him, and H McC eventually calling the relationship off.

Bill is notable for enjoying 'singalongs' with listeners who call in, having a broad knowledge of contemporary and classical music. Indeed, the show is introduced by Level 42's hit single, 'Something About You'. Bill's show often delves nostalgically into the recent past - for example, reminding listeners of confectionery and beverages of old; indeed, cooking is a common and well-liked theme of his show. He is well-known for his pernickety use of correct grammar and will often jump onto any mistake a caller makes. Regular features of his programme include 'caption contests': competitions to come up with the best headline for an interesting newspaper story. There are also joke competitions, including 'Knock, Knock', 'Doctor, Doctor', 'A man walks into a pub...' and 'What do you call a...'; and finally poetry and other word-based competitions, including limericks, acrostics, clerihews, haikus, recent addition "Definitials" (one word-per-line acrostics, with the title "borrowed" from a similar Radio Times competition), and a number of other word-play games ("Cockney Rhyming Slang for 2007", and "Celebrity Gravestones", being just two such examples). A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict meter, popularized by Edward Lear. ... Wikipedians Instill Knowledge about Interesting and Pertinent topics, waxing Eloquent Developing Information Abundance Acrostic poems are related to crossword puzzles in that they can be read in multiple directions. ... A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of humorous verse, typically with the following properties: The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known persons name The verse is humorous and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it... Haiku )   is a mode of Japanese poetry, the late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the older hokku ), the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. ... Current Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ... Cockney rhyming slang (sometimes intitialized as CRS) is a form of English slang which originated in the East End of London. ...

As well as being sometimes nicknamed "Ten Pantos" by regular contributors to his show (see 'Pantomime' section), Bill has also more recently been occasionally nicknamed "Marmite" by some listeners, in response to how people either love or loathe him and his many word-based competitions, just as people love or loathe Marmite. A jar of the British version of Marmite Marmite is a British savoury spread made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. ...

Bill leaves his mobile phone on, primarily to use the predictive text function to decrypt some contributors wrongly worded texts. The phone also gives off a loud cockrel sound when a text is received, giving Bill scope for many innuendos, with the catchphrase "Ooh, pardon my cock!".

Come Dine With Me

In September 2005, Bill was seen for a whole week on Channel 4, competing in the reality cookery and entertainment show, Come Dine With Me. Bill had originally applied for the second series of Gordon Ramsay's 'Hell's Kitchen', but his details were passed onto the production team behind Come Dine With Me - and Bill found himself the surprise celebrity participant in this programme. Bill was characteristically amiable and mild-mannered on Come Dine With Me, in contrast to some rather irascible fellow contestants. Most of all, though, it was his cookery which led him to victory - something he has acknowledged with typical modesty. He has previously cooked on the Carlton Food Network and live on Channel 5 on Open House with Gloria Hunniford. He has been cookery editor of a magazine and last year was elected to the prestigious Guild of Food Writers. Bill is a near-professional chef, and says that the one thing he would salvage in a fire would be his treasured 'recipe scrapbook'. There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Hells Kitchen (UK) is a British cookery-based reality show starring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. ... Gloria Hunniford was a presenter on BBC radio and television. ...

Ann Maurice's Interior Rivalry

In early 2007, Bill took part in Five's house makeover contest Ann Maurice's Interior Rivalry, after competing in a previous series. The twelve contestants were split into teams of four, and each team's first task was to make over a living room. However, Bill became very unhappy with the working conditions (which included killing cockroaches), and particularly with the over-night living and sleeping conditions. When asked by Ann at the end of the task which member of his team he felt could have given more, Bill deflatedly named himself. He was one of the contestants dropped from the next round. After returning to his LBC show after filming, Bill admitted to his listeners that he was very unhappy about the whole experience, and vowed to not mention the programme so nobody would see it. However, a few days before the programme was broadcast, on Thursday 23rd March, at 8pm on Five, one of Bill's regular callers alerted him on air that it was about to be shown. Bill claimed to be very embarrased and nervous about the whole thing. He comforted himself with the comment from a cameraman, who after Bill was dropped from the programme, commented "Don't worry, it's only on Channel 5, no-one will see it anyway!!" Ironically, a few years previously, Bill had been the senior continuity announcer at the station. No mention of this was given in the programme. Launched in 1997, five is the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue television channel to launch in the United Kingdom. ... Ann Maurice (born California) is an American House Stager, better known in the UK as TVs The House Doctor // Born and raised in California, Maurice started out in real estate, but after 13 years got frustrated with it. ... Families Blaberidae Blattellidae Blattidae Cryptocercidae Polyphagidae Nocticolidae Cockroaches (or simply roaches) are insects of the Order Blattodea. ...

Pantomime

Nicknamed 'Ten Pantos' by LBC fans, Bill has appeared in a number of shows. Panto has allowed him to shine both as an actor and vocalist. Bill's love of performing in panto is clear from a diary entry during his stint in Cinderella at the Hawth, Crawley, in December 2004: The Hawth Theatre is an arts and entertainment complex located in 38 acres of woodland half a mile from Crawley town centre. ...

"Time flies when you're being frozen by fairy magic, yanking false legs from scheming ugly sisters and waltzing at royal balls in a powdered wig."

Trivia

• Bill shares his birthdate with David Bowie, Shirley Bassey, Stephen Hawking and Elvis Presley.

• Bill appeared as an extra in the popular long running soap Crossroads. His only spoken words - all two of them - "Yeah, sure" - were to 'Kevin Brownlow'. In 1981 when the protagonist character 'Meg Richardson' was axed, Bill released a record called 'Meg Is Magic' in support of her. Bill has since claimed that he was coaxed into performing the record to try and drum up publicity; The record flopped and went unnoticed.

• Although not known to each other, Bill also shares a path of destiny with Carol Vorderman. In the Spring/early Summer of 1982, both Carol's mother and Bill's mother had noted Press advertisements for presenters new to television. Without hesitation both mothers sent in applications on their behalf. Carol and Bill were unaware of this until they had been chosen from thousands of hopefuls, Bill to present That's Life, Carol to show off her maths genius on Countdown.

• One of Bill's biggest fears is pigeons. He claims that he can't stand them when they flap up around him.

David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. ... Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born January 8, 1937), is a Welsh singer, perhaps best-known for performing the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979). ... Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA, (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist. ... Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Carol Jean Vorderman MBE (Born in Prestatyn, North Wales is a Welsh television personality best known for being a long-standing co-presenter of Channel 4 game show Countdown. ... Pigeon redirects here. ...

External links

• - Official Bill Buckley website