 |
| Alex Riley | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Alexander John Riley |
| Born | 29 March 1968 Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Medium | Stand up, television |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Children | 2 sons |
| Notable works and roles | The Caravan Show |
Alexander John Riley (born 29 March 1968 in Sheffield, Yorkshire [1] ) is an English TV and radio presenter. [2]
Born and brought up in Sheffield, Riley started performing with the city's Crucible Youth Theatre, during which time he originated, and appeared in, sketches and devised pieces, as well as appearing in a number of plays and farces at the Library Theatre.
Riley had a succession of jobs, including spells managing a shopping centre and selling aerial photographs, before successfully answering an on-air appeal for researchers on BBC TV's Top Gear programme. A lifelong car enthusiast, Riley was in his element writing scripts for racing driver turned presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson and making many cameo appearances before being given the chance to present his own items. Amongst these were a 9-hour road trip from London to Brighton on the world's oldest vehicle, a challenge to build a car in 16 hours from junk bought at Europe's largest auto jumble sale and appearing as Elvis at the UK's premier American lifestyle festival.
He went on to write and perform sketches for BBC One specials on the Chelsea Flower Show and Britain in Bloom, appear as a bed-hopping bigamist in a prime time BBC One documentary Bigamy and write and present Short Circuits, an innovative 10-part series for Discovery Home and Leisure which combined Scalextric with tips on making realistic scenery out of chicken wire. Moving sideways to radio, he was chosen as the voice of The Comedy Club, [3] a nightly 2-hour comedy strand which played a significant part in BBC7 achieving the Sony Gold Award for Station Sound.
Returning to TV, Riley has presented two series of Boys Toys, a series for ITV1 West Country, the Caravan Show for Discovery Real Time, a tongue-in-cheek active sports series You Know You Want To (again for ITV1 Westcountry) and, after buying a Triumph TR7, Classic Car Club, for Discovery Real Time. He has also been a "traveller" for Globe Trekker. [4]
For BBC Three's Mischief series Riley has also presented documentaries which made use of dramatic stunts to confront those responsible for problems on the UK's public transport network and for the fact that thousands of homes across the country lie empty at a time when housing is in short supply. For a 2008 Mischief documentary on food titled Britain's Really Disgusting Foods, Riley attempted to create his own "Mr Riley's" meat pie using the minimum requirements set by the Food Standards Agency. When shown on BBC One, it got 2.6 million viewers, [5] prompting the creation of a series of 3 documentaries titled Britain's Really Disgusting Food, aired in January 2009. His new show aired in 2010 called Britain's Really Disgusting Drink. From 2015, Riley has appeared 6 times on the CBBC panel show The Dog Ate My Homework . Riley also hosts All Over the Workplace for CBBC.
Nicholas John Hancock is an English actor and television presenter. He hosted the sports quiz They Think It's All Over for 10 years. He also formerly presented Room 101 (1994–1999) on TV, as well as its earlier radio version (1992–1994).
Peter Hugh Dennis is an English comedian, presenter, actor, impressionist and writer. He was a panellist in every episode of the comedy show Mock the Week (2005–2022).
Yvette Paula Fielding is an English television presenter, producer, actress, and writer. In 1987 she became the youngest presenter on Blue Peter aged 18. With her husband Karl Beattie, she presented the Most Haunted series on the Living channel, via their own production company, followed by Ghosthunting With..., establishing Fielding as 'first lady of the paranormal'. She has appeared in a wide range of other programmes, from The Wright Stuff to Through the Keyhole and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
Richard "Dick" McCourt is an English entertainer and presenter. He is best known as one half of the comic duo Dick and Dom, with the other being Dominic "Dom" Wood. His older brother is fellow television presenter James McCourt.
Globe Trekker is a British adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The English series was inspired by the Lonely Planet travelbooks and began airing in 1994. Globe Trekker is broadcast in over 40 countries across six continents. The programme won over 20 international awards, including six American Cable Ace awards.
Reginald Yates is a British writer and director with a career spanning three decades on screen as an actor, television presenter and radio DJ. Yates played Leo Jones in Doctor Who and has worked at the BBC in radio and television–presenting various shows for BBC Radio 1 for a decade as well as hosting the BBC One singing show The Voice UK, hosting the first two series with Holly Willoughby.
Wall to Wall Media, part of Warner Bros. Television Studios UK, is an independent television production company that produces event specials and drama, factual entertainment, science and history programmes for broadcast by networks in both the United Kingdom and United States. Its productions include Who Do You Think You Are?, New Tricks, Child Genius, and Long Lost Family.
The Really Wild Show is a long-running British television show about wildlife, broadcast by the BBC as part of their CBBC service to children. It also runs on Animal Planet in the US.
Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes, known collectively as Sam & Mark, or simply Smark, are an English popular music and television presenting duo. They previously competed on the second series of Pop Idol in 2003, where they finished third and second, respectively, behind winner Michelle McManus. Since then, Sam & Mark have had a successful career in radio and television in the UK.
Carlton Kids was a British digital terrestrial pay television kids channel, provided by Carlton Television, which started broadcasting on 15th November 1998 and closed on 31st January 2000. Its sister channels were Carlton Food Network, Carlton World, Carlton Cinema and Carlton Select. It broadcast exclusively on ONdigital, the digital terrestrial pay-TV platform backed by Carlton and Granada, where it timeshared on channel 34 with Carlton World.
Bernie Clifton is a British comedian and entertainer, known for his work with his orange ostrich puppet costume Oswald the Ostrich.
Stefan Gates is a British television presenter, author, broadcaster and live-show performer. He has written books about food, cooking and science. He has presented over 20 TV series, mostly for the BBC, including Cooking in the Danger Zone about unusual food from the world's more dangerous and difficult places. He develops half of these TV series himself, including the CBBC children's food adventure series Gastronuts and Incredible Edibles.
Maverick Television is a television and media production company.
John Archer is a British comedy magician, television writer and actor. As well as performing magic, he has also commercially released a number of his tricks through various magic suppliers.
Twenty Twenty is a British television production company that joined the Shed Media Group in September 2007. The company produces documentaries, current affairs, drama, living history, and children's television.
True North Productions is an independent British television production company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The company creates factual programmes and series in a wide variety of genres, including observational documentary, true crime, current affairs, history, food, property, and children's content. Their programmes have been sold via distributors to broadcasters throughout the world and have been screened in numerous countries, including the United States, Australia, Russia, and Africa.
Graham Reilly is a British composer, known for composing television music in the UK, Europe and US.
Argonon is an independent media group founded in 2011 by James Burstall, the CEO of Leopard Films. Argonon has offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, Liverpool, Oklahoma, and Glasgow. The group produces and distributes factual entertainment, documentary, reality, entertainment, arts, drama, and children's programming for various television networks and channels worldwide, although they focus on the UK, US, and Canadian markets. Argonon produces shows such as The Masked Singer UK (ITV), Worzel Gummidge, Dispatches, Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, House Hunters International (HGTV) and Hard Cell (Netflix).
BOSH! is a duo of British vegan chefs from Sheffield consisting of Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. They rose to fame in 2016 with the launch of their YouTube channel, and have gone on to host the ITV1 television programme Living on the Veg and author a number of books. Their eponymous vegan cookbook ranked fifth in the Sunday Times Bestsellers chart in 2018, and is among the top 50 best-selling UK cookbooks of all time.