David Lloyd Vitty (born 24 April 1974)[1] is a British radio presenter. He worked alongside Chris Moyles at BBC Radio 1, having originally been a broadcast assistant on Moyles' early morning show. He became the show's head writer and 'Director of Comedy' and moved with Moyles to the drivetime slot, and then to Radio 1 Breakfast, during which time the programme was known as The Chris Moyles Show. In total, he spent 14 years from 1998 to 2012 working alongside Moyles.
David was educated at Glenealy Junior School and Bedford School, the name 'Comedy Dave' came from when he ran the tuck shop in the school hall and would regularly tell jokes in order to make more sales, many included impersonations of the teachers accents. After school, Vitty studied Radio Production at college, but never had any ambitions to be on-air. He began working as a copywriter[2] and then moved onto becoming a "tech op" for Radio 1 on 5 December 1996. In 1997, he then met Chris Moyles – they got on well with each other and Moyles invited Vitty to work with him on his early morning show. When Moyles transferred to drive time in 1998, Vitty went with him and became "Comedy Dave" after comedian Lee Hurst asked Vitty on the show who he was, he said "Super Dave" to which Hurst sarcastically responded "Comedy Dave more like" in reference to his formative years nickname.[3]
Vitty is a fan of Everton F.C. as his father and other family members from the Prenton area were also a fans of the club[4]
The Chris Moyles Show
Vitty's regular daily contribution to The Chris Moyles Show was the "Tedious Link" (which launched September 2002 – a parody of Jo Whiley's now-defunct "Tenuous Link"), a collection of loosely connected information, where one fact lead into another by way of juxtaposition, which then eventually lead into the title of a song (or the musicians responsible for it), often a "classic" or memorable tune, which was usually played at precisely 9am, preceded by the Greenwich time pips. Once the song had been played he was questioned by listeners and the rest of the crew about the validity of the information given out during the "Tedious Link" (the theme tune from Treasure Hunt is usually played in the background). The theme music from the TV comedy show Bottom was used as the "bed" (underlying music) for the feature but for January 2009 Chris Moyles unveiled a new purpose-written jingle and music.
Around 9:05am, Vitty sang "Let's get ready to ramble", signifying the start of the feature "Half-Time in the Show", holding onto the last syllable for a good ten to twenty seconds, in the style of Michael Buffer. This feature was dropped on the show's return for the new year in January 2009.
It was announced on the show on 11 July 2012 that Chris Moyles would be leaving the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in September 2012. Moyles went on to play Herod in a UK tour of the Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar in September – October 2012. It was unclear what activities Vitty would move on to, but on this show Moyles simply said "We're off.." implying that the whole team was leaving.
Vitty did not return when The Chris Moyles Show did in September 2015 on Radio X, as he is currently running a production company, called Stripey Horse.
Marathon broadcast for Comic Relief
Moyles announced in February 2011 that both he and Vitty would, in aid of Comic Relief, attempt to present Radio 1's Longest Show Ever with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave for Comic Relief, a record previously held by Simon Mayo.[5] The show began at 6:30am on Wednesday 16 March and at 7:31pm on Thursday 17th Moyles and Vitty reached the 37-hour mark which gained them the record for the Longest Radio Show in BBC Radio 1 history.[6] They continued to broadcast and at 8.30am Friday 18th broke the Guinness World Records' record for the 'Longest Marathon Radio DJ (Team) Show'. By the end of the show at 10.30am, they had set a new record of 52 hours and raised £2.4million for Comic Relief 2011 via online and SMS donations.[7]
Subsequently, the total raised has increased to £2,821,831 and with an audience of 2.84million, it was the most popular live BBC Red Button radio feature ever.[8] 3.8 Million people watched on the Radio 1 Website.
Other radio work
On 5 January 2013 Vitty made his debut on BBC Three Counties Radio presenting Saturday Breakfast for two weeks.[9]
In 2018, Vitty returned to early morning on the new "Hits Radio", presenting alongside Gethin Jones & Gemma Atkinson. It was announced on 30 May 2019 that Vitty and Jones would leave the station, with Atkinson moving to the Drivetime show after her maternity leave.[10]
Stripey Horse
In 2014 Vitty set-up a production company called Stripey Horse along with Nic Franklin, Luke Hammersley and Nicola Martin.
Vitty appeared on the 6th series of Dancing on Ice with British adagio ice skater Frankie Poultney. He was knocked out in the skate-off on Sunday 13 February 2011.
Other work
Vitty has co-presented cover shows on Radio 1 entitled Chappers and Dave, with the ex- The Scott Mills Show sidekick Mark Chapman. On 30 December 2006, on the "Celebrity Couples Edition" of The Weakest Link, Chapman and Vitty won, beating the Chuckle Brothers in the final round. They both toured student unions across the UK regularly on their 'Chappers and Dave World Tour', and raised money for both Comic Relief and Sport Relief by visiting football stadiums across the UK.[citation needed]
Vitty appeared on BBC game show, Hole in the Wall in an episode aired on 26 September 2009. He failed to get through any of the holes except for the very first.[11]
On 29 December 2009, Vitty appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, raising money for Cancer Research UK. He finished third overall on 17 points after the general knowledge round, having recovered from scoring 6 points on the first round answering questions about British motorways.[citation needed]
Between 2010 and 2012, David provided the narration for Channel 4 series Coach Trip for a total of four series.[12] He also occasionally featured in the weekly Moan-In section of Richard Bacon's programme on BBC Radio 5 Live and has co-presented the football phone-in 6-0-6, also on 5 Live.[citation needed]
In 2020, Vitty started co-hosting Fuelling Around, a motoring podcast with British Touring Car Championship driver Jason Plato. With almost 65,000 listens across podcast platforms and YouTube, the show received a five-star rating on Apple where it was ranked the number one automotive podcast.[citation needed] It was confirmed on 30 March 2021, that the chat-show style offering would be returning for a second series.[13] He hosted a first live show [14] with an appearance from Bradley Walsh marking the start of a third series in November 2021.[15]
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