Danny Baker in Wiki:
Leaving school in 1972 at the age of 15, Baker initially worked in One Stop Records, a record shop in South Molton Street in London's West End. In 1976, with fellow Deptfordian Mark Perry, Baker founded the proto-punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue, and this led to an offer from the New Musical Express, home to the likes of Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons, Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent. Baker initially began working as the receptionist, but was soon contributing regular articles and reviews before progressing to interviews. He often refers to these times during his radio shows, regularly citing examples of the ridiculous rock star behaviour exhibited by his interviewees.
Early Days as a Rock Journalist Leaving school in 1972 at the age of 15, Baker initially worked in One Stop Records, a record shop in South Molton Street in London's West End. In 1976, with fellow Deptfordian Mark Perry, Baker founded the proto-punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue, and this led to an offer from the New Musical Express, home to the likes of Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons, Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent. Baker initially began working as the receptionist, but was soon contributing regular articles and reviews before progressing to interviews. He often refers to these times during his radio shows, regularly citing examples of the ridiculous rock star behaviour exhibited by his interviewees.
Radio Career
BBC GLR Baker began his radio career on BBC GLR in 1989, presenting Weekend Breakfast from 6-9am on Saturdays and Sundays. The show was produced by Chris Evans, who became a good friend to Baker.
With GLR eventually opting for a more orthodox breakfast show at weekends, Baker moved to the 10am to 1pm slot on Sundays.
BBC Radio 5 In 1990, Baker joined the newly launched BBC Radio 5, presenting Sportscall. From October 1991 to October 1992 he presented 606 and from February 1992 until October 1993, he presented Morning Edition from 6.30-9am every weekday morning. This was Baker's heyday - his Morning Edition still stands out in the memory of his fans as one of the funniest and most innovative programmes in the history of British radio. His anchoring of 606 polarised opinion. To fans of a non-conservative nature he was hailed as a genius, while traditionalists abhorred his loud-mouthed, iconaclastic approach. His influence at the station remains. His fearless attacks on football authority, particularly the 'blazers' at the Football Association, paved the way for BBC 5 Live's present day preparedness to court unpopularity within the game through its robust criticism of players, managers and referees.
Radio 1 Baker then joined BBC Radio 1 in October 1993, taking over the Weekend mid-morning show from 10am-1pm from Dave Lee Travis who had famously resigned on air following the mass sackings instigated by Matthew Bannister and Trevor Dann during the early 1990s. However, due to poor ratings, from November 1994 he was heard on Saturdays only from 10am-12midday. Simon Mayo took over Sunday Mornings.
Baker's original style led to a fall in listeners at Radio 1 but despite him tendering his resignation on at least two occasions, management added extensions to his already lucrative contract. From October 1995, his Saturday show went out from 12.30-2.30pm. He eventually left the station in September 1996. His co-hosts included BBC continuity announcer Allis Moss, Dr. Laurie Sore, Andy Darling and Danny Kelly.
5 Live & GLR While continuing with his Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 1, in 1996 Baker joined BBC Radio Five Live to present a Sunday lunchtime show with Danny Kelly, Baker & Kelly Upfront.
On leaving BBC Radio 1, Baker returned to BBC GLR to present a 3 hour Sunday Morning show from 10am-1pm. 'Baker and Kelly Upfront' also returned, now in a Saturday lunchtime slot, while Baker also took on a new show, 'The Baker Line', a Wednesday evening version of the 606 phone in show.
While 'Baker and Kelly Upfront' was generally a light-hearted show, 'The Baker Line' was much darker and emotionally charged. Baker was at his most outspoken, and in early 1997, he was sacked from Five Live when station bosses alleged that he had incited threatening behaviour during an angry outburst about a referee.
Talk Radio Baker promptly joined Talk Radio to present a similar football phone in show on Saturday evenings from 5.30-7.30pm. A pre-match show was subsequently added from 11.30 am to 1pm. After moving to the Saturday breakfast slot (8am to 12 noon), he eventually engineered his own dismissal after a matter of weeks by refusing to centre the whole show around football, preferring to intersperse the chat with his own music selections.
Virgin Radio After leaving Talk Radio, he joined Virgin Radio in early 1999, taking over from Jonathan Ross on Sunday mornings from 10am-1pm.
Not long after, Baker was approached by the BBC and was asked whether he wanted to present a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2. Baker turned down the offer by saying that the time wasn't right. Baker also deputised on Virgin's Saturday lunchtime football show from 12-2pm for a handful of shows, alongside Danny Kelly.
He left the station in 2000
BBC London 94.9 In September 2001, Baker joined BBC London 94.9 presenting a Saturday morning show from 8-11am. Just 6 months later, in March 2002, he took over the breakfast show from 6-9am and used the song The Candy Man as the recurring theme tune. Although not drawing a particularly large listenership, the show was much loved by those who bothered to tune in, and he later won "Sony Radio DJ of the year" for the show. However, the day after winning, he announced that he was leaving the show at the end of the month. His last show was on Friday 27th May 2005.
On Monday 17th October 2005, after a sabbatical at home, Danny rejoined BBC London 94.9 where he took over the more sleep-friendly hours of the weekday afternoon show 3-5pm from Jono Coleman, who moved to co-present the breakfast show with former actress JoAnne Good.
His radio shows tend to feature off-the-wall phone-ins and discussions with his on-air team, often regarding music and entertainment nostalgia of the 1960s and 1970s. His interview approach tends to focus on off-beat, obscure trivia rather than the guests' latest or most famous work. He takes great pleasure in interspersing his shows with (relatively) obscure rock tracks from bands such as Yes, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.
He is joined on his current afternoon show by "sidekicks" Amy Lamé, Baylen Leonard and David Kuo, who also appear on his latest project, a podcast called the All Day Breakfast Show.
Television & Writing Career On television, early appearances included a 1981 teaming up with Janet Street Porter on LWT's 20th Century Box, a primitive example of Porter's youth TV production style that kick started her career. The show consisted of a series of 30 minute documentaries on various elements of youth culture, the most memorable being focused on the then burgeoning New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene which included an early TV appearance of Iron Maiden performing at The Marquee Club, and hilarious interviews with "air guitarists".
Baker's first mainstream big break was as roving reporter/presenter on the Michael Aspel fronted LWT regional magazine programme The Six O'Clock Show alongside former Mastermind winner (and former London black cab driver) Fred Housego. Paul Ross (brother of Jonathan Ross who incidentally Baker had as his best man) was his researcher. Baker's most memorable moment during his stint on The Six O'Clock Show (due to it continually being resurrected for clips shows) is his altercation with a rail platform guard in which Baker can be heard remonstrating "Don't you know who I am?".
Danny then drifted into television writing after being asked to prepare a piece for, again ironically, one of the first 'clips shows': TV Hell (an A-Z of the worst TV programmes ever). Just prior to this he had performed in pantomime as Idle Jack in Dick Whittington at Barking alongside Michael Robbins ("Olive"'s husband "Arthur" from vintage sitcom On The Buses). None of the cast were paid when the promoter disappeared with all the takings.
Since then he has presented television shows such as Win, Lose, or Draw, Pets Win Prizes and TV Heroes. The latter being a series of 10 minute homages to some of Baker's entertainment idols including Fanny Craddock, Peter Glaze (from Crackerjack) and the Top of the Pops audience (in which Baker once famously appeared energetically leaping around to a performance of "Ooh What A Life" by the Gibson Brothers in a 1979 show - it was captioned as "Danny Baker's first TV appearance").
He eventually landed his own BBC Saturday night chat show (Danny Baker After All) which he modelled on the highly successful late night Johnny Carson/Jay Leno US talk show format but unfortunately his original style and unusual guests (Rick Wakeman of prog rock band Yes was a regular) did not attract the mainstream audience that the time slot demanded.
His later appearance fronting a series of irritating - but lucrative - television adverts for Daz washing powder and Mars chocolate led to a feeling of over-exposure and even "sell out" from some quarters. Adult satire comic Viz even featured a hilariously savage cartoon strip featuring Baker as the main character. Baker parodied his Daz ads by appearing as himself on the sitcom Me, You and Him.
During the late 1990s he made many guest appearances on comedy shows including Have I Got News For You, Shooting Stars, QI, and Room 101. During this period he frequently appeared in the press as a result of going on nights out with good friends Chris Evans and England footballing legend Paul Gascoigne. This was considered newsworthy at the time because Gascoigne was under intense media scrutiny for drinking and socialising whilst preparing for major tournaments. This included an infamous incident when Gascoigne was photographed by paparazzi in the early hours wolfing down a doner kebab a few days before a major game. After Gascoigne was left out of the 1998 World Cup squad, Baker went on Have I Got News For You to defend his friend and criticise the omission.
Baker was also a writer on Evans' show TFI Friday, as well as writing for other presenters such as Angus Deayton and Jonathan Ross, and writing a weekly column for The Times. He was, briefly, a columnist for the early issues of movie magazine Empire.
He also appeared on The Terry and Gaby Show from 2003 to 2004 (which will forever be remembered for the infamous moment when he burnt his hand trying to perform a trick with a microwave and a piece of soap) and has appeared on BBC Four quiz show QI.
In 2005 Baker appeared in the video to "Is This The Way To Amarillo?" a #1 hit single for Peter Kay and Tony Christie, which also featured other famous British personalities such as Keith Harris, Geoffrey Hayes, Shakin' Stevens and Jimmy Savile.
Baker's most recent TV project was The Sitcom Showdown which began on UK TV Gold in late April 2006. Baker appeared on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice in 2007 for Comic Relief. He has also recently stared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as the narrator, at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley.
