Dotun Adebayo

Last updated

Dotun Adebayo
MBE
Born
Oludotun Davey Moore Adebayo

(1959-08-25) 25 August 1959 (age 64)
Lagos, Nigeria
Other namesThe Referee. The Nightwatchman
Education Stationers' Company's Comprehensive School; Stockholm University; University of Essex
Occupations
Known for
Spouse Carroll Thompson
Children2
Relatives

Oludotun Davey Moore "Dotun" Adebayo MBE (born 25 August 1959) is a British radio presenter, writer, and publisher. He is best known for his work on Up All Night on BBC Radio 5 Live, as well as the former obituary programme Brief Lives (ended July 2007).

Contents

Early life

Oludotun "Dotun" Adebayo was born in Lagos, Nigeria, [1] and moved to join his parents in England at the age of six. [2] His younger brother Diran Adebayo is a novelist, and his nephew Tobi Adebayo-Rowling is a professional footballer. As a young boy, Adebayo joined the National Youth Theatre, where he starred in Killing Time by Barrie Keeffe, Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, and several other productions.

Adebayo was educated at Woodlands Park Junior School in Tottenham, where he was in the year below Winston Silcott. He went on to Stationers' Company's Comprehensive School in Hornsey, North London, followed by Stockholm University, where he studied Literature. While there, he had a reggae segment inside a Saturday-night radio programme on Sveriges Radio P3. Also started a reggae band, Giant Steppers. He then returned to the UK to study Philosophy at the Wivenhoe Park campus of the University of Essex.

While studying at the University of Essex, and presenting two programmes on the student radio station, in 1987 Adebayo was elected President of the University of Essex Students' Union to serve in the 1987/1988 academic year. Standing as an independent, he defeated Labour Students candidate Asad Rehman. Adebayo graduated from Essex in 1987 with a BA degree in Philosophy. [3]

Adebayo revealed during an episode of Up All Night [4] that his middle names were "Davey Moore". His parents were boxing fans and had given him these middle names because the boxer Davey Moore had boxed and beaten British-Nigerian Hogan Bassey a year earlier. He spoke about this during the show's "Virtual Jukebox" segment when the Bob Dylan song "Who Killed Davey Moore?" had been selected by a listener.

Career

The American playwright Tennessee Williams chose Adebayo to play a small part in the world premiere of his last play, The Red Devil Battery Sign , in which Adebayo acted opposite Pierce Brosnan. [1]

Adebayo appeared in The Oblong Box at the age of eight, and Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier's The Element of Crime . As well as claiming to have been the first black Teddy boy in London in his early teens, Adebayo also won a Rotary Club public-speaking award as a teenager, and worked for the BBC from the age of 12 on the radio programme Network Africa. Around this same time, Adebayo nearly became the latest, 'Milky Bar Kid', only narrowly missing out on the part, owing to him not needing to wear glasses.

Adebayo resigned as President of the University of Essex Students' Union within a few months to take up a job with The Voice , Britain's main black newspaper, where he was music editor until 1991. His columns and articles have been published in Pride Magazine and the New Nation , as well as broadsheet and tabloid newspapers such as The Guardian , The Independent , The Times , London Evening Standard and the News of the World . [5]

Some of these columns were compiled into books: Can I Have My Balls Back Please (2000) and its sequel Sperm Bandits (2002), the latter a humorous look at the phenomenon of sperm theft. This led to a follow-up Channel 4 docudrama Sperm Bandits. He is working[ when? ] on his first novel, Promised Land, an epic saga spanning 50 years in the lives of Britain's richest black family.

In 1993, while appearing on Channel 4's The Devil's Advocate opposite presenter Darcus Howe, he was spotted by GLR programme executive Gloria Abramov, who was looking for a new presenter for the Black London programme. His broadcasting work on BBC London 94.9 gave him the opportunity to present other programmes, such as the Saturday night reggae show, and he eventually "presented everything except travel!" On his half-week of the Up All Night show on BBC Radio 5 Live, he presents both the World Football Phone-In and the Virtual Jukebox: this was a replacement for his Virtual Bookshelf. [6]

Adebayo's television work includes writing and presenting the documentary White Girls Are Easy (for Channel 4), and the weekly show Heavy TV. Radio Dotun, as he now calls himself, has just (December 2023) published his 'memoirs' Effries, which he describes as being the story of when he was arrested for murder.

Adebayo founded the publishing company X Press, with Steve Pope, [7] producing black fiction such as Baby Father, Victor Headley's Yardie (which became the first black British best-seller when it was published in 1992), and Cop Killer (which gained instant notoriety when 200 bullets were sent out to the press to promote the title). He is also responsible for the Nia imprint of literary black fiction, including titles such as J. California Cooper's In Search of Satisfaction, and the 20/20 imprint for current generic fiction such as the best-seller Curvy Lovebox. Adebayo also published the comic magazine Skank .

Adebayo is co-founder of Colourtelly, Britain's first general-interest black internet television station. To save costs, Adebayo uses his own house as the studio. When it launched on 1 August 2007, he had the aim of attracting 6000 subscribers to break even.

In September 2020, Adebayo became a co-presenter of On The Continent as part of the new Football Ramble Presents network, alongside Andy Brassell.

In October 2023 it was announced that Dotun Adebayo would launch a Sunday evening programme on BBC Local Radio, presented from London and starting on Sunday 12 November. The programme will be broadcast on all BBC Local Radio stations. [8] Dotun Adebayo using his pen-name Radio Dotun published his 'memoirs' called Effries in October 2023 which he states tells the story of how he was once arrested for murder.

Personal life

Adebayo is married to singer Carroll Thompson, and they have two daughters. He supports Charlton Athletic Football Club.

In October 1999, Adebayo was invited to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth II. [9] Ten years later, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2009. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Sky at Night</i> BBC documentary television programme

The Sky at Night is a documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first monthly broadcast on 24 April 1957 until 7 January 2013. The latter date was a posthumous broadcast, following Moore's death on 9 December 2012. This made it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history. Many early episodes are missing, either because the tapes were wiped or thrown out, or because the episode was broadcast live and never recorded in the first place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Moore</span> English astronomer, broadcaster and writer (1923–2012)

Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. He was also a minor politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jools Holland</span> English musician and television personality (born 1958)

Julian Miles Holland is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Joss Stone, Jayne County, Tom Jones, José Feliciano, Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Ringo Starr, Bono, Rod Stewart and Ruby Turner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wivenhoe</span> Human settlement in England

Wivenhoe is a town and civil parish in the Colchester district, in north-eastern Essex, England, approximately 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two separate settlements; however, with considerable development in the 19th century, the two have since merged.

Mark Lamarr is an English comedian, radio disc jockey and television presenter. He was a team captain on Shooting Stars from 1995 to 1997, and hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 1996 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Essex</span> BBC Local Radio service for Essex, England

BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Radio London</span> BBC Local Radio station for London

BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Radio Wiltshire</span> Radio station in Swindon

BBC Radio Wiltshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the English county of Wiltshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dermot O'Leary</span> English television presenter

Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary is an English broadcaster. He presented the television talent show The X Factor on ITV from 2007 until its final series in 2018, with the exception of 2015. Since 2021, O'Leary has presented ITV's This Morning on Fridays, school holidays and bank holidays alongside Alison Hammond, a role expanded to the remainder of the week on a rotation with the departures of Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby in the summer and autumn of 2023.

Up All Night is a late night phone-in programme broadcast on the national news/sport station BBC Radio 5 Live in the United Kingdom, usually on air between 1 and 5 am every night. It is also broadcast on most of the BBC's local radio frequencies across England as well as on Radio Scotland, Radio Wales and Radio Ulster.

Oludiran "Diran" Adebayo FRSL is a British novelist, cultural critic and academic best known for his 1996 novel Some Kind of Black.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddy O'Connell</span> English television and radio presenter

Guy Patrick O'Connell is an English television and radio presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme each Sunday morning. He is also an occasional presenter of the PM programme. O'Connell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Mark Webster is a British journalist and broadcaster who has presented many of Channel 5's late night sports shows.

<i>World Football Phone-In</i>

The World Football Phone-in is a British weekly radio phone-in show about association football around the world. Hosted by Dotun Adebayo, it is part of the nightly Up All Night programming on BBC Radio 5 Live which he presents. The football show is broadcast in the 2 am to 4 am slot now on Tuesday mornings, and is also released as a podcast. Regular contributors are awarded a 'Brazilian shirt name' as a nickname.

<i>The Football Ramble</i> Sports podcast

The Football Ramble is a podcast, about association football, produced in London by podcast production company Stak. Originally provided fortnightly, this was increased to a weekly show at the beginning of the 09/10 football season, mainly due to repeated listener requests. In October 2015, the podcast became biweekly with a preview show of the weekend's football going out on a Friday followed by a show on Monday reflecting on the weekend's action and previewing any midweek games that may be occurring. Early episodes were recorded in the kitchen of presenter Luke Moore's rented house in Harlesden with a couple of old microphones and a MiniDisc player.

This is a list of events from British radio in 1960.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 5 Live, and its predecessor BBC Radio 5.

This is a timeline of BBC Radio London, a BBC Local Radio station broadcasting to London.

This is a list of events taking place in 2020 relating to radio in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syd Burke</span> Broadcaster, photographer and journalist (1938–2010)

Edmund Burke, known as Syd Burke, was a broadcaster, photographer and journalist, who moved to the UK from Jamaica to study photography in 1960, after having studied engineering, and later hosted London Broadcasting Corporation's (LBC) Rice 'n' Peas, a popular magazine programme.

References

  1. 1 2 "Radio presenter delivers memorial lecture". Policy Studies Institute. 1 November 2009. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  2. Alison Donnell (2002). "Adebayo, Dotun". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. p. 4. ISBN   978-1-134-70025-7.
  3. "After Essex: In Conversation with Dotun Adebayo". University of Essex. Wivenhoe Park. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  4. Adebayo, Dotun (23 July 2017). "23/07/2017". Up All Night. BBC Radio 5 Live.
  5. "Broadcasting today: Dotun Adebayo". Lecture list. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  6. "Dotun Adebayo's Virtual Bookshelf". 12 September 2010.
  7. Richardson, Anna (19 March 2008). "The X Press regroups". The Bookseller . Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  8. "Dotun Adebayo to host new show across BBC local radio network". Radio Today. 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  9. Heinemeier, Jo (31 May 2012). "Queen's Diamond Jubilee: TV and Radio guide" . The Daily Telegraph . London. ISSN   0307-1235.
  10. "No. 59090". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2009. p. 13.