Chris Evans

Chris Evans
Born	April 1 1966 (age 43) Warrington, England
Show	Drive Time Show
Station(s)	BBC Radio 2
Time slot	5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Weekdays
Style	Drivetime Show Host
Country	United Kingdom
Website	Chris Evans Drivetime

Chris Evans (born 1 April 1966 in Warrington) is an English radio and television presenter and producer.

Early career

Evans started his broadcasting career in 1983 at Manchester Piccadilly Radio, as an assistant to Timmy Mallett and playing a character on his show called 'Nobby Nolevel' ('No 'O' Level'). At the time (1982-84) worked at one of TJ & B McLoughlin's tobacconists and newsagents stores, in Woolston, an outer suburb of nearby Warrington. Tom the newsagent remarked on more than one occasion, "He drives me mad, he'll end up in prison or a millionaire!". Chris would DJ in local pubs when he was not at Piccadilly Radio, notably the Brittania on Scotland Road in Warrington, popular with followers of alternative and Gothic rock in the mid 1980s. Chris would finish at Piccadilly in the early hours and open up the shop some 3 hours later, during this period. His antics at Piccadilly Radio (Now Key 103 Manchester)also extended to driving round the Manchester area in the radio car to turn up at listeners' houses. In addition, he was producer to the underrated presenter James H Reeve on the station. Following this, he presented a weekday graveyard slot with competitions such as 'What’s my gadget' and gave listeners opportunities to sell their belongings on air. He was then offered a Saturday afternoon show and then the weekday evening show, until he was sacked in 1987 for gross misconduct.

After working as a producer on Richard Branson's service Radio Radio, where he produced material for Jonathan Ross, Evans went on to work at the BBC London radio station GLR, first as a producer on Emma Freud's mid-morning show, and then Weekend Breakfast with Danny Baker. Evans became a presenter on the station in early 1990, taking over a Saturday afternoon show. Three months later, he started presenting the Monday-Thursday evening show, entitled The Greenhouse, which went out from 7.30-10pm; he remained on this slot until the end of 1990.

In early 1991, due to television commitments with BSkyB, Evans took over presenting his show Round At Chris', every Saturday morning from 10am-1pm, which he continued to present until April 1993.

In addition to his Saturday morning show on GLR, in March 1992, Evans began presenting a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1, replacing Phillip Schofield who had previously broadcast in the slot. His show called Too Much Gravy, was broadcast from 2.30-4pm and ended in September 1992. His move to Radio 1 was shortlived but seen as a huge success, with controller Johnny Beerling later admitting he wished he'd offered Evans a full-time show there and then. At the time, however, Evans objected that Radio 1 had tried to constrain his style, preventing him from using the "zoo" format, allegedly because Steve Wright was already doing that on the station.

In April 1993 Evans joined Virgin Radio as part of its original line up to host a Saturday morning show called 'The big red mug show'. He was paid £30k pa to present this show but left to pursue his TV career, not to return until 1997.

A national celebrity

His departure from Radio 1 was in part so he could devote his time to the new Channel 4 breakfast television show, The Big Breakfast, from 28 September 1992. Evans, along with co-host Gaby Roslin, was an unqualified success in the slot, which brought him national celebrity and considerable acclaim. In 1993 he left GLR to present his radio show with the same format on the newly-launched Virgin Radio, but this only lasted for three months.

Evans left The Big Breakfast on 29 September 1994 and formed his own production company, Ginger Productions. Its first major programme, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, was broadcast between 1994 and 1995. The original concepts involved proved to be lucrative for Evans as its format was sold to numerous foreign broadcasters. For all Evans achieved in subsequent years, this programme remains regarded by critics as his best television work.^{[citation needed]}

Radio 1 and beyond

In April 1995 Evans joined BBC Radio 1 to host the flagship breakfast show, and significantly boosted the ratings which had declined considerably since the departure of Simon Mayo two years earlier. During his time at Radio 1, he began to make demands of the Radio 1 management, initially requesting that his show start later, at 7.00am rather than 6.30am. This request was accepted, though he later fell out with Radio 1 management over a number of issues and made on-air criticisms of Trevor Dann in particular.

His spell at the station ended in 1997 when he failed to turn up to work, following a long-running dispute over his demand to take Fridays off, in part to pursue commitments he had taken on as the host of Channel 4's TFI Friday programme, which had commenced in 1996.

The show — devised, produced and hosted by Evans — combined celebrity interviews, musical guests and daft games and competitions and was initially a big success during a period when anything Evans touched turned to gold. It ended in 2000 after viewing figures declined. Evans, in fact, did not host the last season and let guests take turns. The format remained the same.

His breakfast show was taken over by Mark & Lard a.k.a. Mark Radcliffe & Marc Riley. When Evans found out that they were a ratings disaster, he quickly got in touch with BBC Radio 1 management to ask whether he could take back the show again. Station management declined but did offer him a weekend slot, which he turned down.

Virgin Radio

In reponse to the falling ratings of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, bosses decided to replace its presenters with the relatively unknown Kevin Greening and the well known children's presenter Zoe Ball. Their tenure was due to start on 13 October 1997.

Chris Evans, on the other hand, was hired by Virgin Radio to host its breakfast show from the same date, prompting an immediate upsurge in listening figures to the station. He initially, however, presented the show from Monday-Thursday only, starting at 7am. This was in contrast to the 6:30am start of the Radio 1 Breakfast show, which ran 5 days a week.

In December that year, with the assistance of investors, he bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson, for £85m, and formed the Ginger Media Group, to control the interests both of Ginger Productions and Virgin Radio.

During the last quarter of 1999, Evans ran separate quizzes on his radio show and on TFI Friday, both called Who's Going To Be A Millionaire? (a reference to the very popular TV game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). The million-pound prize was awarded on radio on 17 December and on television on 24 December. These were the first million-pound prizes awarded on either medium in the UK. The distinction of being the first quizmaster to give away a million-pound prize is often erroneously ascribed to Chris Tarrant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, however Evans was in fact first by more than ten months.

Both the Radio 1 breakfast show and its Virgin Radio successor introduced the audience to Evans' loyal production team, all of whom were encouraged to play speaking roles in the shows. This led to producer John Revell presenting his own Virgin show at weekends and researcher Holly Samos earning a contract to model bras.

Dismissed

In March 2000, GMG was sold to SMG plc, for £285m. Evans continued to host the station's breakfast show, however, until he was dismissed on June 28, 2001, for (again) repeatedly failing to arrive at work. Evans attempted to sue Virgin Radio, claiming that he was unfairly dismissed and denied share options worth £8.6m. The judgement in Evans v SMG Television Ltd. & Ors 2003 EWHC 1423 (Ch) (26 June 2003) is here - [1]. Justice Lightman found that he had been fairly dismissed and was not entitled to the share options. Evans was publicly criticised for his attitude by the judge. Virgin Radio countersued and Evans was ordered to pay £1m towards their legal costs.

UMTV

In August 2002, Chris Evans set up a radio and television production company, UMTV, with the aim of specialising in live cutting-edge entertainment programming. Over the next 3 years UMTV produced more than 375 hours of television, with mixed success. TV shows included 'Johnny Vegas: 18 Stone of Idiot' for Channel 4 / E4; 'OFI Sunday' for ITV; 'Live With Christian O'Connell' and 'Live With Chris Moyles' for Five and the BAFTA award-winning School of Hard Knocks for 4 Learning.

Following two high profile shows which failed to perform in the ratings, UMTV hired Terry Wogan and Evans' former Big Breakfast co-host Gaby Roslin to host a weekday morning magazine show, 'Terry & Gaby'. Evans said publicly that if this show failed he would set up a market stall. Despite critical acclaim, the audience numbers never took off and Channel 5 axed the show after its year-long run citing its high cost as a reason. True to his word, Evans was pictured at the end of the final show with a market stall and later he opened it for real at Stables Market, Camden.

More recently the company has expanded to include a factual entertainment department and launched its first advertiser-funded programming.

Personal life

Evans has a daughter, Jade (born 1986) by Alison Ward. Evans then married Carol McGiffin; the couple separated in 1994 and were divorced in 1998. The split was not amicable and McGiffin has been scathing about Evans in newspaper articles in the years since. After relationships with Kim Wilde, model Rachel Tatton-Brown (whose sister was a researcher on The Big Breakfast), production assistant Suzi Aplin, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Sykes, he married Billie Piper in Las Vegas in May 2001. In September 2004 news stories circulated regarding a trial separation. In spring 2005 it was confirmed that Evans and Piper would divorce, although it is well-known to be an amicable split [2].

Return to public life

He re-entered public life in early 2005, presenting the breakfast slot of UK Radio Aid’s day of programming for the victims of the Asian Tsunami, which was aired on most of the UK's commercial radio stations, and also the BRTI Awards in 2005 & 2006.

Radio 2

Evans joined BBC Radio 2 in April 2005 presenting a number of one-off Bank Holiday shows for the station as well as BBC Radio 2's coverage of the Live 8 concert in London.

Evans then joined Radio 2 on a permanent basis in September 2005, presenting a weekly Saturday afternoon show from 2pm-5pm. This show was well received and he was announced as the successor to Radio 2's drivetime show on Thursday 2 March 2006 to succeed long-time host Johnnie Walker, beginning on April 18th. His arrival in the slot saw more than 1,000 listeners complain. Lesley Douglas, the station's controller, issued a statement in response saying that Evans should be given a chance. RAJAR audience figures published in August 2006 showed Evans had 150,000 fewer listeners than his predecessor's last show but was on par with previous years (BBC News, 2006). The second set of Rajars published in October 2006 showed his audience was up by 109,000 year-on-year, and up by 33,000 compared with the previous quarter. Figures showed he was drawing an average audience of 4.9m a day on his drivetime show. However the February 2007 Rajars showed that Evans had since shed 50,000 listeners.

Return to television

In November and December 2005, he presented OFI Sunday on ITV1. In a move described by Private Eye as Partridgean, ex-wife Piper was the first guest on the programme. OFI Sunday was cancelled after just 5 shows following poor reviews and low viewing figures. Its cancellation led Evans to complain on air during his Saturday Radio 2 slot that he no longer knew how to be successful on television. The possible cause of its ratings could be due to its timeslot, as variety/chat shows are not very popular in England on late Sunday nights. Another cause could be that the 'post-pub' format had run its day and Evans had simply run out of ideas. Add to this the marked downhill lurch of ITV with its accent on 'celebrity' as opposed to quality or originality and it is possible to argue that the programme was doomed from the start.

2006 award

In early May 2006, Chris Evans, now hosting Radio Two's Drivetime Show, was named music radio personality of the year, defeating rivals Jamie Theakston, Lauren Laverne, Marc Riley and Tim Lovejoy to win. When accepting the award, Evans thanked the BBC for giving him "a second chance".

External link

• Chris Evans Drivetime blog
• TFI Friday archive videos

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