David Vitty

Last updated

David Vitty
Born
David Lloyd Vitty

(1974-04-24) 24 April 1974 (age 50)
Education Bedford School
Spouses
  • Emma Pontefract
    (m. 2003;div. 2006)
  • (m. 2008;div. 2011)
Children1
Career
Show
Station Hits Radio (2018-2019)
Time slot6:30 am 10 am
StyleDisc jockey
CountryUnited Kingdom
Website www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chrismoyles

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.

Contents

Vitty has also presented other shows on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 5 Live, as well as some presenting work on television, including Channel 4's Coach Trip . He is a former contestant on Dancing on Ice .

Background

Vitty 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, Vitty 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]

On 22 April 2011, Vitty and his wife, Jayne Sharp announced they were to split.[ citation needed ]

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 9 am, 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 9:05 am, 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 6:30 am on Wednesday 16 March and at 7:31 pm 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 8.30 am Friday 18th broke the Guinness World Records' record for the 'Longest Marathon Radio DJ (Team) Show'. By the end of the show at 10.30 am, they had set a new record of 52 hours and raised £2.4 million 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 2.84 million, it was the most popular live BBC Red Button radio feature ever. [8]

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.[ citation needed ]

Band

Vitty was part of the comedy folk band Folk Face with Dominic Byrne, a newsreader on The Chris Moyles Show .[ citation needed ]

Dancing on Ice

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 ]

On 28 February 2007, Vitty appeared in an edition of Ready Steady Cook , beating radio colleague, and former band member of Folk Face, Dominic Byrne. He previously presented a programme called Shed Sports 1 on Nuts TV and co-presented on UK Play's The Chris Moyles Show .[ 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, Vitty provided the narration for Channel 4 series Coach Trip for a total of four series. [12]

In 2020, Vitty started co-hosting Fuelling Around, a motoring podcast with British Touring Car Championship driver Jason Plato.[ 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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Radio 1</span> British national radio station

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, hip hop and indie, while its sister station 1Xtra plays black contemporary music, including hip hop and R&B. Radio 1 also runs two online streams, Radio 1 Dance, dedicated to dance music, and Radio 1 Relax, dedicated to chill-out music; both are available to listen only on BBC Sounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Evans (presenter)</span> English radio, TV presenter (born 1966)

Christopher James Evans is an English television presenter, radio DJ and producer for radio and television. He started his broadcasting career working for Piccadilly Radio, Manchester, as a teenager, before moving to London as a presenter for the BBC's BBC Radio London and then Channel 4 television, where The Big Breakfast made him a star. Soon he was able to dictate highly favourable terms, allowing him to broadcast on competing radio and TV stations. Slots like Radio 1 Breakfast and TFI Friday provided a mix of celebrity interviews, music and comic games, delivered in an irreverent style that attracted high ratings, though often also generated significant numbers of complaints. By 2000 he was the UK's highest paid entertainer, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. In the tax year to April 2017, he was the BBC's highest-paid presenter, earning between £2.2m and £2.25m annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Moyles</span> English radio and TV presenter and author

Christopher David Moyles is an English radio and television presenter, author and presenter of The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Baker</span> Former BBC presenter

Danny Baker is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Throughout his career he has largely presented for London's regional radio and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Cox</span> English broadcaster

Sara Joanne Cox is an English broadcaster and author. She presented Radio 1 Breakfast on BBC Radio 1 from 3 April 2000 until 19 December 2003. Since January 2019, she hosts the BBC Radio 2 drivetime show, Monday to Friday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Vaughan</span> English television and radio presenter

Jonathan Randal Vaughan is an English television and radio presenter and a film critic. He was the main presenter of Capital Breakfast alongside Lisa Snowdon on 95.8 Capital FM between 2004 and 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Holmes</span> British writer, comedian and broadcaster

Jon Holmes is a British comedian, writer, presenter and broadcaster known for his work on such programmes as The Skewer,The Now Show, Listen Against, along with both music and spoken word radio. He has appeared on numerous television programmes.

Clive Warren is a British radio presenter.

The Chris Moyles Show is the title given to two differing versions of a radio programme hosted by Chris Moyles, originally broadcast as Radio 1 Breakfast from 5 January 2004 to 14 September 2012, before transferring three years later on 21 September 2015 to the Global Radio-owned commercial radio station Radio X. The show is broadcast between 6:30 and 10:00 each weekday.

Michael George Smith, also known by the on-air nickname of Smithy was an English television and radio presenter, racing driver, pilot and businessman. During the 1980s, he was known for his appearances on BBC One as a co-host of Breakfast Time and the music show Top of the Pops.

Chappers and Dave was the name of an irregular BBC Radio 1 cover show presented by Mark Chapman and David Vitty. The format usually only aired when the pair covered other DJs' absences. The format was abandoned following Chapman's departure from Radio 1 on 24 December 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Grimshaw</span> English television and radio presenter.

Nicholas Peter Andrew Grimshaw, also known as Grimmy, is an English television and former radio presenter, podcaster and author. He became known for having hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1. He is also known as a television presenter for his Channel 4 roles in T4 and The Album Chart Show. In 2015, he was a judge on the twelfth series of The X Factor.

Jonny Saunders is a British former radio sports reporter, presenter and commentator. He worked for the BBC and featured on Radios 1, 2, 4, 5 live and 6 Music. He was the drivetime and later morning sports presenter on BBC Radio 2, featuring on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show and Chris Evans Drivetime until leaving on 8 July 2011, to become a teacher.

Folk Face were a comedy band formed in 2005 by BBC Radio 1 DJ Dave Vitty and BBC Newsreader Dominic Byrne. Mainly appearing on The Chris Moyles Show, they also appeared in person at the Glastonbury Festival and at several Radio 1 events. They mainly did cover versions in a tongue-in-cheek folk music style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg James</span> British author, broadcaster, comedian, and presenter

Gregory James Alan Milward is an English broadcaster and author. He has been a presenter on BBC Radio 1 since 2007, hosting shows including his old drive-time show and the station's flagship breakfast show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Kay</span> British television and radio presenter (born 1974)

Vernon Charles Kay is an English broadcaster and former model. He presented Channel 4's T4 (2000–2005) and has presented various television shows for ITV, including All Star Family Fortunes (2006–2015), Just the Two of Us (2006–2007), Beat the Star (2008–2009), The Whole 19 Yards (2010), Splash! (2013–2014), and 1000 Heartbeats (2015–2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fearne Cotton</span> English television and radio presenter

Fearne Wood is an English broadcaster and author. She began her career in the late 1990s as a children’s television presenter for GMTV, CITV and CBBC. She went on to present various television shows, including Top of the Pops (2004–2020), Love Island (2006), The Xtra Factor (2007), and Interior Design Masters (2019), as well as the Children in Need (2005–2017) and Red Nose Day telethons. From 2008 to 2018, Cotton was a team captain on the ITV2 comedy panel show Celebrity Juice.

The Golden Hour is a long-standing radio feature in the United Kingdom, in which records are played that all charted in the UK Top 40 in a certain year and listeners are invited to guess the year. First broadcast on BBC Radio in 1973 during Tony Blackburn's mid-morning show, the Golden Hour segment was continued for many years on BBC Radio 1 by Simon Bates, Simon Mayo, and Chris Moyles, with Bates currently presenting the feature as a programme on Universal Music's range of Now Music television channels.

<i>Red Nose Day 2011</i> Fundraising event organised by Comic Relief

Red Nose Day 2011 was a fundraising event organised by Comic Relief. There was a live telethon broadcast on BBC One and BBC Two from the evening of 18 March 2011 to early the following morning as well as a number of run-up events. The theme for the Red Nose Day 2011 invited fund-raisers to "Do Something Funny For Money".

This is a timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 1, a British national radio station which began in September 1967.

References

  1. Chris Moyles Team – Dave Archived 5 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Interview with 'Comedy' Dave Archived 27 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "The Gospel According to Chris Moyles: The Story of a Man and His Mouth"
  4. "Dave Vitty | My Everton Story"
  5. "Chris Moyles sets world record for longest broadcast". The Daily Telegraph. 18 March 2011. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011.Jack Caba,
  6. "Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave attempt world record radio broadcast"; SWNS; 16 March 2011 Archived 18 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine , (Retrieved 16 March 2011)
  7. "Chris Moyles breaks radio show record for Comic Relief" (Retrieved 13:13 Friday, 18 March 2011)
  8. "Moyles record grabs 2.8m on Red Button". Digital Spy. 23 March 2011.Laughlin Andrew,
  9. "BBC Three Counties Radio - Saturday Breakfast, with Dave Vitty".
  10. "Gethin, Gemma and Dave exit Hits Radio Breakfast Show".
  11. Hole in the Wall
  12. "Comedy Dave to narrate new 'Coach Trip'". Digital Spy. 23 August 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  13. "Fuelling Around podcast earns second series". Fluxposure. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  14. "Relive top night as Fuelling Around podcast makes live debut". 21 October 2021.
  15. "Fuelling Around podcast: Chasing a dream with Bradley Walsh". 3 November 2021.