Chris Evans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other persons of the same name, see Christopher Evans.
| Style | Music / entertainment |
| Station | BBC Radio 2 |
| Timeslot | Weekdays, 5pm-7pm |
| Frequency | 88-91FM MHz, Online |
| Area | UK |
Chris Evans (born April 1, 1966, in Warrington, Cheshire, England) is an English radio and television presenter and producer.
Contents |
[edit] Early career
Evans started his broadcasting career in 1985 at Manchester Piccadilly Radio, as an assistant to Timmy Mallett and playing a character on his show called 'Nobby Nolevel' ('No 'O' Level'). His antics also extended to driving round the Manchester area in the radio car to turn up at listeners houses. In addition, he was producer to the under rated presenter James H Reeve on the station. Following this, he presented a weekday grave yard slot with competitions such as what’s my gadget and gave listeners opportunities to sell their belongings on air. He was then offered a Saturday afternoon show and then the weekday evening show, until he was sacked in 1987 for gross misconduct.
After working as a producer on Richard Branson's service Radio Radio, where he produced material for Jonathan Ross, Evans went on to work at the BBC London radio station GLR, first as a producer on Emma Freud's mid-morning show, and then Weekend Breakfast with Danny Baker. Evans became a presenter on the station in early 1990, taking over a Saturday afternoon show. Three months later, he started presenting the Monday-Thursday evening show, entitled The Greenhouse, which went out from 7.30-10pm; he remained on this slot until the end of 1990.
In early 1991, due to television commitments with BSkyB, Evans took over presenting his show Round At Chris's, every Saturday morning from 10am-1pm, which he continued to present until April 1993.
In addition to his Saturday morning show on GLR, in March 1992, Evans began presenting a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1, replacing Phillip Schofield who had previously broadcast in the slot. His show called 'Too Much Gravy', was broadcast from 2.30-4pm and ended in September 1992. His move to Radio 1 was shortlived but seen as a huge success, with controller Johnny Beerling later admitting he wished he'd offered Evans a full-time show there and then. At the time, however, Evans objected that Radio 1 had tried to constrain his style, preventing him from using the "zoo" format, allegedly because Steve Wright was already doing that on the station.
In April 1993 Evans joined Virgin Radio as part of its original line up to host a saturday morning show called "the big red mug show". He was paid £30k pa to present this show but left to persue his TV career, not to return until 1997.
[edit] A national celebrity
His departure from Radio 1 was in part so he could devote his time to the new Channel 4 breakfast television show The Big Breakfast from 28 September 1992. Evans, along with co-host Gaby Roslin, was an unqualified success in the slot, which brought him national celebrity and considerable acclaim. In 1993 he left GLR to present his radio show with the same format on the newly-launched Virgin Radio, but this only lasted for three months.
Evans left The Big Breakfast on 29 September 1994 and formed his own production company, Ginger Productions. Its first major programme Don't Forget Your Toothbrush broadcast between 1994 and 1995. The original concepts involved proved lucrative for Evans as its format was sold to numerous foreign broadcasters. For all Evans achieved in subsequent years, this programme remains regarded by critics as his best television work.
[edit] Radio 1 and beyond
In April 1995 Evans joined BBC Radio 1 to host the flagship breakfast show, and significantly boosted the ratings which had declined considerably since the departure of Simon Mayo two years earlier. His spell at the station ended in 1997 when he failed to turn up to work, following a long-running dispute over his demand to take Fridays off, in part to pursue commitments he had taken on as the host of Channel 4's TFI Friday programme, which had commenced in 1996.
The show - devised, produced and hosted by Evans - combined celebrity interviews, musical guests and daft games and competitions and was initially a big success during a period when anything Evans touched turned to gold. It ended in 2000 after viewing figures declined. Evans, in fact, did not host the last season and let guests take turns. The format remained the same.
His breakfast show was taken over by Mark & Lard a.k.a. Mark Radcliffe & Marc Riley. When Evans found out that they were a ratings disaster, he quickly got in touch with Radio 1 management to ask whether he could take back the show again. Station management declined but did offer him a weekend slot, which he turned down.
[edit] Virgin Radio
After Radio 1 management turned down his offer to return to the station, Evans returned to Virgin Radio to host the breakfast show from 13 October 1997, again prompting an immediate upsurge in listening figures. In December that year, with the assistance of investors, he bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson, for £85m, and formed the Ginger Media Group, to control the interests both of Ginger Productions and Virgin Radio.
During the last quarter of 1999, Evans ran separate quizzes on his radio show and on TFI Friday, both called Who's Going To Be A Millionaire? (a reference to the very popular TV game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). The million-pound prize was awarded on radio on 17 December and on television on 24 December. These were the first million-pound prizes awarded on either medium in the UK. The distinction of being the first quizmaster to give away a million-pound prize is often erroneously ascribed to Chris Tarrant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, however Evans was in fact first by more than ten months.
Both the Radio 1 breakfast show and its Virgin Radio successor introduced the audience to Evans' loyal production team, all of whom were encouraged to play speaking roles in the shows. This led to producer John Revell presenting his own Virgin show at weekends and researcher Holly Samos earning a contract to model bras.
[edit] Dismissed
In March 2000, GMG was sold to SMG plc, for £285m. Evans continued to host the station's breakfast show, however, until he was dismissed on June 28, 2001, for (again) repeatedly failing to arrive at work. Evans attempted to sue Virgin Radio, claiming that he was unfairly dismissed and denied share options worth £8.6m. The judgment in Evans v SMG Television Ltd. & Ors 2003 EWHC 1423 (Ch) (26 June 2003) is here - [1]. Justice Lightman found that he had been fairly dismissed and was not entitled to the share options. Evans was publicly criticised for his attitude by the judge. Virgin Radio countersued and Evans was ordered to pay £1m towards their legal costs.
[edit] UMTV
In August 2002, Chris Evans set up a radio and television production company, UMTV, with the aim of specialising in live cutting-edge entertainment programming. Over the past 3 years UMTV has produced more than 375 hours of television, with mixed success. TV shows include 'Johnny Vegas: 18 Stone of Idiot' for Channel 4 / E4; 'OFI Sunday' for ITV; 'Live With Christian O'Connell' and 'Live With Chris Moyles' for Five and the BAFTA award winning School of Hard Knocks for 4 Learning.
Following two high profile shows which failed to perform in the ratings, UMTV hired Terry Wogan and Evans' former Big Breakfast co-host Gaby Roslin to host a weekday morning magazine show, 'Terry & Gaby'. Evans said publicly that if this show failed he would set up a market stall. Despite critical acclaim, the audience numbers never took off and Channel 5 axed the show after its year long run citing its high cost as a reason. True to his word, Evans was pictured at the end of the final show with a market stall and later he opened it for real at Stables Market, Camden.
More recently the company has expanded to include a factual entertainment department and launched its first advertiser-funded programming.
[edit] Personal life
Evans has a daughter, Jade (born 1986) by Alison Ward. Evans then married Carol McGiffin; the couple separated in 1994 and were divorced in 1998. After relationships with Kim Wilde, model Rachel Tatton-Brown (whose sister was a researcher on The Big Breakfast), production assistant Suzi Aplin, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Sykes, he married Billie Piper in Las Vegas in May 2001. In September 2004 news stories circulated regarding a trial separation. In spring 2005 it was confirmed that Evans and Piper would divorce, although it is well-known to be an amicable split [2].
[edit] Return to public life
He re-entered public life in early 2005, presenting the breakfast slot of UK Radio Aid’s day of programming for the victims of the Asian Tsunami, which was aired on most of the UK's commercial radio stations, and also the Brit Awards in 2005 & 2006.
[edit] Radio 2
Evans joined BBC Radio 2 in April 2005 presenting a number of one-off Bank Holiday shows for the station as well as BBC Radio 2's coverage of the Live 8 concert in London.
Evans then joined Radio 2 on a permanent basis in September 2005, presenting a weekly Saturday afternoon show from 2pm-5pm. This show was well received and he was announced as the successor to Radio 2's drivetime show on Thursday 2 March 2006 to succeed long-time host Johnnie Walker, beginning on April 18th. His arrival in the slot saw more than 1,000 listeners complain. Lesley Douglas, the station's controller, issued a statement in response saying that Evans should be given a chance. RAJAR audience figures published in August 2006 showed Evans had 150,000 fewer listeners than his predecessor's last show but was on par with previous years (BBC News, 2006). The second set of Rajars published in October 2006 showed his audience was up by 109,000 year-on-year, and up by 33,000 compared with the previous quarter. Figures showed he was drawing an average audience of 4.9m a day on his drivetime show.
[edit] Return to television
In November and December 2005, he presented OFI Sunday on ITV1. In a move described by Private Eye as Partridgean, ex-wife Piper was the first guest on the programme. OFI Sunday was cancelled after just 5 shows following poor reviews and low viewing figures. Its cancellation led Evans to complain on air during his Saturday Radio 2 slot that he no longer knew how to be successful on television.
[edit] 2006 award
In early May 2006, Chris Evans, now hosting Radio Two's drivetime show, was named music radio personality of the year, defeating rivals Jamie Theakston, Lauren Laverne, Marc Riley and Tim Lovejoy to win. When accepting the award, Evans thanked the BBC for giving him "a second chance".
[edit] External link
| Preceded by: Steve Wright | BBC Radio One Breakfast Show Presenter 1995-1997 | Succeeded by: Mark and Lard |
Categories: Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1966 births | BBC Radio 1 DJs | BBC Radio 2 DJs | Piccadilly Radio DJs | People of Welsh descent | British radio personalities | English television presenters | British television producers | Living people | British radio DJs | Virgin Radio (UK) | People from Warrington
