Fran Godfrey

Last updated

Frances Helen Godfrey (born 29 June 1953) is a radio presenter and former BBC Radio 2 newsreader, most famous for her appearances on Wake Up to Wogan , a long-running breakfast show in the United Kingdom. [1] Godfrey began contributing to Wake Up to Wogan in 1993 and made her final appearance on the show on 9 May 2008.

Contents

Biography and career

Born in Hampstead, London, on 29 June [2] 1953.[ citation needed ] Godfrey left England at the age of two to live in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), returning four years later with parents and brothers Tony and Nick to live for a short time near Oxford, before moving to Highcliffe in Dorset. She was educated at the Convent of the Cross, and the Polytechnic of Central London before moving into secretarial work for several years in London and Bournemouth.

In 1980 she approached the independent local radio station in Bournemouth – 2CR – and accepted a job as a Technical Operator. Godfrey then became Assistant to the Commercial Producer, which involved creative writing and producing. In 1984, Godfrey began presenting, and in time presented every type of programme on the station.

She joined the BBC network in September, 1990, but rose to prominence becoming part of the team for Wake Up to Wogan in 1993.[ citation needed ] Godfrey was associated with the programme for many years as one of several newsreaders who would appear on a rotation basis; her contemporaries in this respect being Alan Dedicoat and John Marsh. She moved from presenting the early morning news in the late 2000s, but continued to present bulletins for Radio 2 until she left the station in 2014.

In September 2012 it was announced that Godfrey would take voluntary redundancy along with her colleague, Fenella Fudge at the end of the year. Her decision came about as the BBC made budget cuts as part of its Delivering Quality First initiative. As part of the programme the broadcaster would reduce the number of its continuity announcers and merge the news teams for separate networks, but returned to the BBC after her voluntary redundancy leave. [3]

In March 2016 Godfrey joined new Bauer Radio digital station Mellow Magic [4] as its breakfast show presenter and remains as the show's presenter. [5]

During her time with Wake up to Wogan Godfrey received many emails on air, including poetry which often began "I've fallen in love with Fran Godfrey", and tales of her "Cupboard under the stairs"; once again quoting Sir Terry:

"Fran's lavish penthouse has been the scene of many an unsavoury tale: honest artisans imprisoned for weeks in the cupboard under her stairs, lured there on the pretext of urgent plumbing, grouting, or rendering..." [1]

Godfrey is a past President of Hospital Radio Bedside, a radio station that broadcasts to hospitals in Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and Wimborne, UK.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Wogan</span> Irish-British radio and television broadcaster (1938–2016)

Sir Michael Terence Wogan was an Irish-British radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.

Gaby Roslin is an English television and radio presenter who rose to fame co-presenting The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 between 1992 and 1996. Roslin also presented the Children in Need charity telethons on the BBC between 1995 and 2004.

Alan Dedicoat is an English announcer for programmes on BBC One. He is known as the "Voice of the Balls" on the National Lottery programmes, providing a voiceover for the draws since 1995. He was a BBC Radio 2 newsreader until his retirement from this role in March 2015. Dedicoat is the announcer on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing and its American version Dancing with the Stars.

Sarah Mary Kennedy MBE is a British retired TV and radio broadcaster. She presented her daily early morning radio show, The Dawn Patrol, on BBC Radio 2 from 1993 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Arnold (broadcaster)</span> British broadcaster and journalist (born 1962)

Alice Arnold is a British broadcaster and journalist. She was a newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4 for more than twenty years until the end of December 2012. She currently works for Bauer Media Audio UK hosting on Mellow Magic.

Penelope Jane Smith is an English author, television presenter, newsreader and radio presenter. She has presented for Sky News, GMTV, Classic FM, BBC Radio London, TalkRadio and is a regular contributor to TalkTV launched in April 2022. Smith is a current presenter of the weekday mid-morning show on Magic Classical and her favourite classical composer is Giacomo Puccini.

Paul Christopher Walters was a British radio and TV producer, best known for his work and appearances on Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 breakfast show Wake Up to Wogan from 1995 until a few months before his death in 2006, where he was known to millions as "Dr Wally Poultry". He was also referred to by the name "Pauly Walters."

<i>Wake Up to Wogan</i> Former British radio programme (1993–2009)

Wake Up to Wogan (WUTW) was the incarnation of The Radio 2 Breakfast Show that aired each weekday morning from 4 January 1993 to 18 December 2009. It was the most-listened-to radio show in the United Kingdom, and the flagship breakfast programme broadcast on BBC Radio 2. The show was presented by Terry Wogan, who had previously presented the breakfast show between 1972 and 1984, but the title WUTW was only added at the start of his second tenure. Wogan replaced Brian Hayes, who had hosted the breakfast show during 1992.

Charles Alexis Nove is a British radio broadcaster who currently presents the weekday breakfast show for classical music station Magic Classical.

Brian Hayes is a radio presenter who is known in the United Kingdom for his phone-in shows.

The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is the name given to two versions of a radio programme hosted by broadcaster Chris Evans in the United Kingdom. The first was the incarnation of The Radio 2 Breakfast Show that aired every weekday morning between 11 January 2010 and 24 December 2018. Evans had taken over from Terry Wogan, who ended his stint as the station's morning presenter on 18 December 2009. On 3 September 2018, it was announced by Evans live on air that he would be leaving the network. The show broadcast its final episode on BBC Radio 2 on 24 December 2018. On 3 October 2018, it was announced by Evans live on air that Zoe Ball would take over the slot, with her first broadcast airing on 14 January 2019. Evans meanwhile started the second incarnation of the show on Virgin Radio that began on 21 January 2019.

<i>Weekend Wogan</i> Radio show

Weekend Wogan was the incarnation of the Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 14 February 2010 to 8 November 2015. The show was presented by Sir Terry Wogan, which marked his return to the airwaves following his departure as presenter of the weekday breakfast show, in December 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Radio 2</span> British national radio station

BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. The 'About Radio 2' BBC webpage says: "With a repertoire covering more than 60 years, Radio 2 plays the widest selection of music on the radio - from classic and mainstream pop to country, folk, jazz, musical theatre, soul, hip hop, rock 'n' roll, gospel and blues."

This is a list of events in British radio during 2016.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 2, a British national radio station which began broadcasting in September 1967.

The Radio 2 Breakfast Show refers to a range of programming on weekday mornings on BBC Radio 2 since the station's inception on 30 September 1967. The show's longest serving host to date was Sir Terry Wogan, who worked on the programme for over 29 years in two separate stints, from 3 April 1972 until 28 December 1984, and again from 4 January 1993 until 18 December 2009. The show's shortest serving host to date was Brian Hayes, who hosted the show from 6 January to 23 December 1992. Since 14 January 2019, the show has been hosted by Zoe Ball.

A timeline of notable events relating to Magic 105.4, a commercial radio station operated by Bauer Radio, and the former Magic Network broadcast on AM stations in the north of England.

This is a timeline of the history of the broadcasting of breakfast radio programmes on national stations in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. 1 2 Mustn't Grumble, by Sir Terry Wogan (2006) ( ISBN   0752874381)
  2. ↑ "Biography at the BBC website". BBC. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Plunkett, John (5 September 2012). "Familiar BBC radio voices to depart in 'night of the long mics'". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  4. ↑ "Fran Godfrey and Patsy Kensit for Mellow Magic". RadioToday. 29 February 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "Mellow Magic Presenters | A-Z of Presenter Biographies". Mellow Magic. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.