Terry Christian
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| Terry Christian | |
|---|---|
| Born | Terence Christian 8 May 1962 (age 49) Manchester, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Broadcaster |
| Years active | 1981–present |
Terry Christian (born, Terence Christian on 8 May 1962) is a British television and radio presenter whose credits include Channel 4's late night Youth Entertainment show The Word and ITV1 moral issues talk show It's My Life. He also presented six series of It's My Life, two series of Turn On Terry and numerous other programmes for ITV, MTV, VH1, Channel 4 as well as a variety of different local and national radio programmes on stations including Radio 4, BBC6 Music, Talksport, Century Radio, Key 103, Signal and BBC's Radio Derby and Manchester.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Christian was born in Old Trafford to Irish parents (born in Dublin) on 8 May 1962 and grew up in Brooks Bar Old Trafford[1] with five brothers and sisters. He was educated at St. Alphonsus Primary School, Ayres Road, Old Trafford and St Bede's College, Manchester. His father was a shop steward in the TGWU at Esso in Trafford Park. He attended Thames Polytechnic in London studying Applied Biology and has an HND in that subject specialising in microbiology.
He was spotted in 1981 by Maxine Baker, who booked him along with 99 other unemployed youngsters from the inner City area of Manchester for Devil's Advocate, a programme made by Granada Television and networked on a Sunday night on ITV about youngsters on the dole, presented by former World in Action editor Gus Macdonald. The show was made in reaction to the Scarman report which looked into the causes of that summers riots in Moss Side, Toxteth, Brixton, Handsworth and St Pauls, Bristol. Amongst the other kids on the dole alongside Christian on Devil's Advocate was Johnny Marr of The Smiths. As a result of his appearances on the programme, Christian was offered his own radio show on BBC Radio Derby called Barbed Wireless.[2]
[edit] Radio
Christian worked for BBC Radio Derby from 1982-88 presenting Barbed Wireless and also from 1986-88 presented WPFM on Radio 4, with his Barbed Wireless programme winning Sony Awards in the Best specialist music category in 1985 and 1986 and contributed regularly to Saturday Live on BBC Radio 1.
He managed a twelve-piece reggae band, from the Nottingham/Derby area, Junior C Reaction, who received airplay on John Peel and Janice Long's shows on BBC Radio 1 for their first independent release on Centurion Records, a double A Side, "Cry Jahoviah", and "Love & Emotion". They were signed to Cooltempo, a Chrysalis subsidiary, and enjoyed a modicum of success with their first release, a version of the Delroy Wilson classic, "'Better Must Come", which was C-listed on Radio One and Capital Radio at the time as well as playing a live session on Radio One's Saturday Live. Terry also promoted regular gigs around the Derby and Nottingham area, promoting concerts by Pop Will Eat Itself, The Jazz Defektors, Nico (of The Velvet Underground fame), Misty in Roots, The Naturalites, The Fall, The Beyond, The Meteors, U.K. Subs, the Cocteau Twins and Hugh Masekela and regular house nights at Derby's Twentieth Century club, where the resident Saturday night DJ was Graeme Park, who left to join Mike Pickering at the Hacienda Nude Night[2]
In late 1988, he joined Piccadilly Radio's Key 103 FM, presenting from 6-9pm on weekday evenings, and 2pm-5pm on Sunday afternoon where he was given a free hand and created a show which would broadcast and promote what would later be dubbed 'The madchester Scene' to a mainstream young audience in The Greater Manchester Area, playing (The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, and 808 State), as well as a mixture of classics by everyone from The Beatles, Love, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, classic soul and funk, plus Manchester favourites like the Buzzcocks, The Smiths, The Fall, New Order, and Joy Division, A Guy Called Garald, The Chameleons. Christian also wrote The Word[disambiguation needed 
] page in the Manchester Evening News from September 1989, a page dedicated to the Manchester music scene, and gave the first press to a host of Manchester luminaries including The Charlatans, Oasis, and Doves (then called Sub Sub), M People.
Christian has presented on every radio station in the Manchester area and Northwest, including Century Radio where he presented a syndicated evening show from 7pm-10pm across the network as well as the breakfast and drive time show on BBC Radio Manchester, where he also presented and originated The manchester Music Show back in 2002, featuring new bands from the greater Manchester area mixed up with Manchester classics from every era, a pre-cursor to the BBC Introducing series. He was also the presenter of The Final Whistle on talkSPORT every Saturday between 5pm and 8pm from 2006 until 2008, alongside ex-footballer Micky Quinn[3]
Christian joined Stockport-based radio station Imagine FM (104.9 fm) in March 2011.[4] Imagine was formerly known as KFM, and Christian once presented a nightly show on the old station alongside Jon Ronson, Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash.
[edit] Television
In 1990, Christian with the explosion of the Madchester scene, was recruited to host the controversial Channel 4 youth show The Word, named after his column in the Manchester Evening News, and based on the format of his music magazine radio shows. The show was a mixture of pop music and teen attitude, and attracted up to a 49% audience share in its Friday night slot. The Word hosted many bands playing live for the first time on British TV, including Oasis, Nirvana, Snoop Dogg, Public Enemy, and Rage Against the Machine. Christian remained its only continuous presenter until it finished its run in 1995.[2]
He went on to present Carlton Television's The Big City, Sky1's pop music show The Hitmix, and The Football Show for Tyne Tees Television. He presented Turn on Terry for ITV with regular guest Tony Wilson and six series of It's My Life (2003–2009) produced by former World In Action editor and Tony Wilson's So It Goes Series producer Geoff Moore for ITV, which was nominated for two St. Martin's Trust Awards.[3]
He has starred as himself in The Cribs' video for the standalone single "You're Gonna Lose Us", which was made to look like an episode of The Word; and also played the part of Ross Peagrum, despotic TV presenter, in series 2 and 4 of the popular BBC TV drama series Cutting It, as well appearing as a guest on numerous TV shows in the UK and Ireland. During the nineties, Terry was also regularly seen as a presenter on MTV Europe.[2] In January 2009 he entered as a contestant on the celebrity version of the reality TV show Big Brother alongside Verne Troyer, La Toya Jackson, Ulrika Jonsson, Coolio and Mutya Buena, finishing in second place. Christian has recently[when?] completed hosting series six of ITV's youth discussion show It's My Life, made by Manchester-based independent Moore Television. The programme is filmed at Granada Television in Manchester. Special guests on this series include Hazel Blears MP, Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Helen Newlove, widow of Garry Newlove.
Christian set up his own production company, Gigwise Productions in April 2010 and is working on documentaries about legendary Manchester photographer Harry Goodwin and Britain's first black footballer Arthur Wharton.
He is in demand as a host for corporate events and as a guest on numerous TV shows including Come Dine with Me, 8 out of 10 Cats and Would I Lie To You?. He is a regular guest on a variety of discussion shows on Radio Five live, Radio Four and BBC2's The Culture Show.
As Christian is an avid Manchester United fan he frequently appears on the Manchester United channel MUTV and has his own show, Terry Christian's Sunday Worship and regularly hosts the Live from the Red Cafe show. He is a regular panellist on topical debate chat show The Wright Stuff.[5] He will star in the natural horror flick DeadTime,[6] which is directed by Chilean filmmaker Tony Jopia[7] and is set for an 2011 release.,[8] and has also recently[when?] played the part of a debauched Catholic priest in the Mad theatre company's production of Angels with Manky Faces, based loosely on the factual book by Andrew Davies, Gangs of Manchester and has also appeared in recent film Selling Yourself, April 2011.
[edit] Writing
Terry Christian has written numerous articles and regular columns for newspapers and magazines, including the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Manchester Evening News, The Observer, The Times, The Sun, Rolling Stone magazine, New York Rocker, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times, and is currently a columnist in Northern Life Magazine. He has also written three books: Brothers - from Childhood to Oasis (Virgin Publishers), Reds in the Hood (André Deutsch 1999) and My Word, a look at the world of television in the 1990s, was published by Orion Books in June 2007 to favourable reviews, and came out in paperback in May 2008. He writes the music pages for the Pride of Manchester website.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Terry Christian Reds in the Hood , André Deutsch 1999
- ^ a b c d Terry Christian, My Word, Orion Publishing, 2006
- ^ a b Terry Christian: TV Presenter, Radio Host, Writer
- ^ RadioWorks: Radio News - Terry Christian brings attitude to Imagine FM
- ^ "Big Joe Egan Knocks Us into Deadtime"
- ^ "Hope regional horror will be monster hit"
- ^ "Teaser Trailer Debut: DeadTime"
- ^ "Heads Will Rock 'n Roll in Full 'Deadtime' Trailer"
- ^ Pride of Manchester
- Terry Christian - My Word, Orion publishing,2006
- Terry Christian - Reds in the Hood, André Deutsch, 1999
- Terry Christian & Paul Gallagher - Brothers From Childhood to Oasis, Virgin Books, 1996
[edit] External links
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