Iain Lee
 |
Iain Lee | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 9, 1973 |
| Occupation | Talk show host - TV Presenter |
Iain Lee (born on 9th June, 1973) [1] is a British comedian and television and radio presenter. Lee was brought up in Slough and attended Herschel Grammar School. His rise to fame began when he worked London stand-up comedy venues, though he became best known as co-presenter of the Channel 4 comedy series The Eleven O'Clock Show. In November 2007, he left his job at LBC 97.3 and currently hosts the Sunday night show for Virgin Radio since 6th January, 2008.
Radio
LBC 97.3
Lee was a presenter on London Radio station LBC 97.3 from January 2005 until November 2007. His radio career started when he would phone Clive Bull, who years later he would be working alongside. Lee's first LBC appearance was when he 'filled in' for Bull for two weeks in the latter months of 2004. When he joined officially in January 2005, Lee hosted the 22:00 - 01:00 slot on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
October 2005 saw Lee's show move to the 1600-1900 late afternoon/early evening "Drivetime" slot, where he presented "The 3 Hour 4 'Till 7 Iain Lee Afternoon Wireless Show.". Many of Lee's listeners favoured this slot, and Lee considered that this was him at his best[citation needed].
In January 2006, Lee moved to 15:00 - 18:30, with the show becoming "The 3 and a Half Hour 3 'Till 6.30 Iain Lee Afternoon Wireless Show. The last week of the Afternoon Wireless Show, from 18th-22nd December 2006, featured a number of special guests (including Frank Sidebottom), and the last show, on Friday 22nd December, included a number regular callers to the show, including Barry from Watford.
From January to November 2007, Lee presented the evening slot, between 19:00 - 22:00, preceding Clive Bull in his show titled "Iain Lee's Good Evening". Iain chose the name after seeking advice from his friend and fellow comedian Mackenzie Crook. His afternoon slot was lost to the weekend breakfast show host Paul Ross.
Lee's show was one of many LBC programmes available as a podcast through a monthly subscription service.
For just over two years (9th September 2005 to 16th September 2007) Lee hosted Triple M, a feature where calls go straight to air, live and unscreened. Other talk radio presenters have also hosted similar features, including Nick Abbot, Tommy Boyd and Clive Bull, where Lee mentioned himself to 'stealing from other presenters'. Initially, Lee would host the feature every Friday evening during the last half hour of the show. Originally called Mental Mayhem, it was renamed to Mick's Mental Mayhem (or MMM for short) after a caller named Mick.
The rising popularity of the format and a change in the LBC schedule in May 2006 led to Lee devote a whole three hour show on Sunday evenings (22:00 - 01:00) to Triple M, being called Sunday Night Triple M, from 7th May 2006 to 16th September 2007. At the time, LBC management favoured the show's format as it would introduce 'exclusive listeners' to the radio station.[citation needed]
A change of LBC management in 2007 led to the demise of the Sunday Night Triple M format altogether, with the last show being broadcast on Sunday, 16th September 2007.[2]
When Global Radio purchased LBC in 2007, Iain's style of presenting fell out of favour with a return to topical and news-led conversation. Without warning, Iain Lee's Good Evening finally came to an end on Friday 2nd November 2007, with the last ten minutes being given to Triple M.[citation needed]
Virgin Radio
Iain returned to national airwaves on Sunday, 6th January 2008 to present the Sunday night show, from 2200-0100, on Virgin Radio with a mixture of music and phone-in. Lee's first show on Virgin featured familiar callers from his LBC show, such as 'Barry from Watford', 'Vicky from Croydon' and 'Barnsworth'.
Big Brother's Big Ears
Lee will be presenting the official Big Brother radio show with co-host Gemma Cairney. The programme is called Big Brother's Big Ears and airs twice a week on channel4.com/bigbrother.
Other Work
Lee fronted the successful Channel 4 show The Eleven O'Clock Show [3] alongside Daisy Donovan, referring to himself as 'TV's Iain Lee', video game review show Thumb Bandits [4] and the ill-fated Channel 4 breakfast show RI:SE [5]. Lee also presented the documentary Thumb Candy and appears regularly on Channel 4's "Top 100" series of programmes. He presented Celebrity Soup for the E! channel taking a look at the week's celebrity news. Iain also regularly appears on shows on Sky One associated with Lost with him as the presenter.
With the help of the UK’s best Beckham look-a-likes, Andy Harmer and Camilla Shadbolt, Iain posed as the Beckham’s PA in their new-found home-city of LA in an attempt to find out how America feels about the Beckhams in Sky One's documentary "Posh and Becks go to Hollywood'", produced by UK television company Twofour. It had a a follow up show called "Wills and Harry go to Vegas", these shows involved Iain trying to trick the people of America that the look-alikes are in fact the royals.
After winning a comedic celebrity edition of The Weakest Link, he also won a "celebrity" edition of the British television quiz Mastermind, broadcast on 29 December 2006, in which his specialist subject was The Monkees.[citation needed]
Other radio work includes appearing on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends, and previously presenting on Xfm London between 1999-2001. Lee also presented Channel 4 radio's UK Lost podcast, where he summarised each episode of series two after it is broadcast in the UK. Since Sky have now acquired rights to air Lost Seasons 3 and 4, Lee has been signed to return in Sky's very own podcast, entitled The Lost Initiative, which began airing alongside the Season premiere in the UK on 19th November[1].
Iain appeared in the third series of Tittybangbang on BBC Three.[6]
Along with his producer known as "Agent Chris", Lee will be appearing on "XLeague.tv" discussing video games.[7]
Shindiggery
Iain has set up a free podcast called "Shindiggery"[8], consisting of music, soundbites and audio recordings. Listeners are also encouraged to send their own recordings in. The podcasts are recorded and edited from Iain's own home, and occasionally features 'guests' on the show. As well as these podcasts he has also released several videos on youtube under the name of "therealiainlee".
References
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0497420/bio
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/06/commercialradio.radio?gusrc=rss&feed=media
- ^ http://www.channel4.com/community/showcards/0-9/11_O_Clock_Show_-_Iain_Lee.html
- ^ http://www.gamespaper.com/news/4sThumbBanditsgetsmixedr.shtml
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/jan/08/broadcasting.channel41
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0497420/#actor
- ^ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2008/03/18/games_dont_make_good_tv_says_exvideogame_tv_show_presenter.html
- ^ http://iainlee.libsyn.com/