Simon Mayo

Simon Mayo
Born	Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo
Career
Show	Simon Mayo Drivetime
Station	BBC Radio 2
Time slot	5-7pm GMT/BST weekdays
Show	Kermode and Mayo's Film Review
Station	BBC Radio 5 Live
Time slot	2-4pm GMT/BST Fridays
Country	United Kingdom
Website	Simon Mayo Drivetime Kermode and Mayo's Film Review

Simon Mayo (born 21 September 1958 in Southgate, London) is an English radio presenter, who has worked for BBC Radio since 1981. As of January 2010, Mayo is presenter of "Simon Mayo Drivetime" on BBC Radio 2, and with Mark Kermode, presenter of "Kermode and Mayo's Film Review" on BBC Radio 5 Live.

In 2008, Mayo was recognized as the "radio broadcaster of the year" at the 34th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the "Speech Broadcaster of the Year" at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, receiving the latter for his "ability to paint colourful pictures of location and event and his ability to bring the very best out of his guests, encouraging conversation and interaction between them while skilfully nudging and controlling them" and for being "a master of light and shade, handling serious and lighter issues with aplomb."

Early career

After graduating from the University of Warwick with a degree in History and Politics , Mayo spent some time honing his skills at Southlands Hospital Radio, worked for five years 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.

In October 1987 he progressed to the weekend early slots from 6-8am and then became presenter of the weekday evening show in January 1988, which went out from 7.30-10pm. Five months later he was offered the Radio 1 breakfast show, regarded as the most prestigious presentation job in UK radio.

Radio 1 Breakfast Show

Mayo spent five years presenting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Throughout his tenure on the breakfast show, 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 who also made regular speaking contributions. A regular conceit was that the show was being overseen by a celebrity "guest producer", played by Blaxill without making any attempt to disguise his normal voice.

The programme became known for various features, including On This Day In History, 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 cryptically led listeners to the title of a hit song.

He also ran his Confessions feature where members of the public sought absolution for their (often frivolous or humorous) "sins", and it moved to a television series in later years. Mayo had already presented the dilemma show Scruples for BBC television, and had joined his BBC Radio 1 colleagues on the host roster for Top of the Pops.

Both On This Day In History and Confessions spawned spin-off books.

Due to frequent 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.

Presenters who covered the breakfast show when Mayo took holidays included Bruno Brookes, Gary King, Phillip Schofield, Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier.

Mayo, like all of Radio 1's high-profile presenters of the time, would take his turn to spend a week in a coastal area of the UK during the Radio 1 Roadshows which occurred for three months of the summer. For a short while, he also presented an additional weekend show for the station on a Sunday afternoon and provisionally titled O Solomon Mayo - to cover for the absent Phillip Schofield, who was working in the West End.

Radio 1 mid-mornings

Mayo officially gave up the breakfast show in 1993, though he had been on an extended period of paternity leave when the announcement was made. His stand-in Goodier was his replacement. Mayo moved on to the mid-morning slot from 9 am to 12 midday, and survived the cull of 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'.

In addition to his mid-morning show, from April 1994 - October 1995, Mayo also presented Simon Mayo's Classic Years, where he got to play two hours of classic pop tunes. The show originally went out on a Sunday lunchtime from 12-2pm, but in November 1994 went out from 10am-12pm on Sundays.

In January 1997, Mayo made a brief return to the breakfast show for three weeks when Chris Evans was dismissed, but both Mayo and Radio 1 ruled out the possibilities of a permanent return to the 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".

In 1999 Simon Mayo broke a world record by broadcasting for 37 hours in aid of that year's Comic Relief.

Mayo remained on the mid-morning slot until he left Radio 1 in 2001, seeing breakfast-show presenters Mark Goodier, Steve Wright, Chris Evans, Mark Radcliffe, Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball come and go from the slot.

His final show was on Friday 16 February 2001 and before signing off, he said; One of the reasons I'm not going to do a DLT is that I've nothing to complain about at all - though as I'll still be employed by the BBC it'd be a stupid thing to do.

Five Live

I always thought I'd like to go back to music. But I also loved exploring a subject from scratch to interview a nuclear physicist. The [5 live] job was a bit like an Open University degree course. The longer I did it, the more I realised how little I know, which is part of ageing.

— Mayo, after his move to Radio 2 Drivetime

In May 2001, after 15 years with Radio 1, Mayo joined another national BBC station, Radio Five Live to present an afternoon programme.

Mayo began broadcasting on Five Live every weekday from 1 to 4 pm, where he remained until December 18 2009. (He will continue on five live with "wittertainment" on Fridays between 2-4)

The programme generally combined topical debates, interviews and reviews. It came live from Westminster each Wednesday for live coverage of Prime Minister's Questions, with discussion and debate afterwards with political correspondents and MPs. The programme also featured Mayo's old Radio 1 sidekick Mark Kermode reviewing the new movie releases each Friday afternoon. The banter between Mayo and Kermode in this section of the programme was described by both men as "wittertainment at its most wittertaining."

In a May 2008 interview with The Guardian, Mayo mentioned he "signed a contract for the next two years" and was uncertain whether he would still be at Five Live when it moves to Greater Manchester. It was later confirmed that Mayo was to move to the Radio 2 drivetime slot, though he will also continue to host a weekly two-hour film review show on Radio 5 Live with Mark Kermode.

In May 2009 Mayo and Kermode won a Gold Sony Radio Award in The Speech Award category, due to continued good work and passion for radio

Radio 2

From October 2001 - April 2007, Mayo hosted the Album Chart show each week for BBC Radio 2. Alongside this, on 2 January 2006, he presented The Ultimate Music Year for the station, where listeners got the chance to vote for their favourite year for music. He has also presented many Sold on Song projects, presented the Top 100 Albums and provided holiday cover for Johnnie Walker on Sundays. From April 2007 - April 2008 Mayo took over the Radio 2 Music Club every Monday night from 11.30pm-12.30am, travelling to London from his family home in Walberswick in Suffolk.

In January 2010, Mayo took over from Chris Evans on the Drivetime show, noting he was "very lucky to be given a second chance in such a high-profile slot."

Other work

Radio 4

Mayo presents Act Your Age, a panel game for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast on Radio 4 on 27 November 2008.

Television projects

On TV he presented the first and second series of BBC show Winning Lines as part of the corporation's National Lottery output; he also hosted a TV version of his radio feature "Confessions".

In 2005 he presented a series "The Big Dig" on BBC TV about allotments in the Rhondda Valley contrasted with others in Highgate, London.

Radio credits

• BBC Radio Nottingham - The Simon Mayo Show 1981 - 1986
• BBC Radio 1:
  • Saturday evenings 7.30-9.30pm 1986 - 1987
  • Weekend early mornings 6-8am Late 1987
  • Monday-Thursday evenings 7.30-10pm January - May 1988
  • Breakfast Show 6-9am May 1988 - September 1993
  • Mid Morning Show 9am-12 midday October 1993 - February 2001
• BBC Radio 5 Live - Afternoon Show 1-4pm May 2001 - December 2009
  • Wittertainment 2.00 - 4.00PM January 2010 - Present
• BBC Radio 2:
  • Album Chart Show Monday evenings 7-8pm October 2001 - April 2007
  • Music Club Monday nights/Tuesday mornings 11.30pm - 12.30am April 2007 - April 2008
  • Drivetime Mon - Fri 5.00 - 7.00pm January 2010 - Present
• BBC Radio 4 - Act Your Age 6.30pm November - December 2008

Personal life

Mayo was educated at Solihull School, a boys' Independent school in the English Midlands, and Worthing Sixth-Form College, West Sussex; he subsequently graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in history and politics. While at university, he had been a presenter on Radio Warwick. In 2005 the university awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters.

Mayo married Hilary Bird in October 1986 in Burton Joyce. They have two sons (born 1991 and 1999) and a daughter (born 1994). He is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur.

External links

• Simon Mayo Drivetime from BBC Radio 2
  • Simon Mayo's blog for the Radio 2 Drivetime programme
• Kermode and Mayo's Film Review from BBC Radio 5 Live
  • Film review video podcast by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, from Radio Five Live's website
• Flickr photo sets from Radio 5 Live:
  • Mayo in the USA from October 2008
  • Simon Mayo's Guests
  • Mayo at the 2008 Wentworth PGA Championship
• Simon Mayo from Radio Rewind's website