Danny Baker
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.
Baker was born in Deptford to a working-class family and raised in Bermondsey. From 1977 he wrote for the punk zine Sniffin' Glue, and from there was hired by the New Musical Express, where he worked as a writer, reviewer, and interviewer. Moving into television in 1980, he began presenting London Weekend Television's Twentieth Century Box and reporting for The Six O'Clock Show. In 1989 he began radio presenting for BBC Radio London and in 1990 joined the newly established BBC Radio 5. In 1997 he was dismissed from the latter, accused of inciting threatening behaviour toward a football referee. That decade, he also began writing for television.
From 2002 to 2012 Baker presented the daily morning radio show on BBC Radio London and in 2007 also presented the channel's all-day podcast, the All Day Breakfast Show. Between 2012 and 2017 he published a three-volume autobiography, which was used as the basis for the 2015 BBC sitcom Cradle to Grave.
In 2019, the BBC dismissed Baker after he posted a tweet that featured a vintage photograph of a couple holding hands with a costumed chimpanzee. His accompanying text, "Royal baby leaves hospital," referred to the recent announcement of the birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, but was interpreted by many as Baker mocking The Duchess of Sussex's racial heritage. Baker denied any racial motivation for the tweet.
Early life
Baker was born in Deptford in south-east London to Fred "Spud" Baker, a dockworker, and Betty, a factory worker. He grew up in Bermondsey and attended Rotherhithe Primary School and then, instead of taking up a grammar school place, went to the nearby West Greenwich Secondary Boys' School, Deptford. After leaving school at 14, he worked in One Stop Records, a small record shop in the West End of London. The youngest of three children, he has an older sister, Sharon, and had an older brother, Michael, who died aged 29 when Danny was 24.Career
Print journalism
In 1977, Baker started writing for the punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue which was founded by his old schoolfriend Mark Perry which in turn led to an offer from the New Musical Express, then edited by Nick Logan. Baker began working as the office receptionist, but was soon contributing regular articles and reviews before progressing to interviews. He often refers to these times during his radio shows, regularly citing examples of the ridiculous behaviour exhibited by his rock star interviewees.In the later 1990s, Baker wrote a weekly sports column for The Times and was briefly a columnist for early issues of film magazine Empire.
Television
Reporting for LWT (1980s)
Baker started his TV career in 1980 at London Weekend Television, as the presenter of Twentieth Century Box – a series of regional documentaries on elements of youth culture in London, produced by Janet Street-Porter. One edition in the first series documented the burgeoning new wave of British heavy metal scene, including an early TV appearance of Iron Maiden performing at The Marquee Club and interviews with "air guitarists". Other editions also featured early appearances from the likes of Spandau Ballet and Depeche Mode.Baker's first mainstream break was as roving reporter-presenter on the Michael Aspel LWT regional magazine The Six O'Clock Show alongside former Mastermind winner and former London black cab driver Fred Housego. Paul Ross was his researcher. During his stint on The Six O'Clock Show, Baker was filmed having an altercation with a British Rail press officer. This clip is often resurrected for clip shows and can be seen on YouTube.
Writing and presenting (early–late 1990s)
Baker appeared regularly on LWT's regional output during the 1980s and early 1990s – working on such programmes as Six O'Clock Live, Danny Baker's Londoners, and in 1991, The Game – a six-part series which featured coverage of teams involved in the fourth division of the East London Sunday Football League. The series was later released on DVD.Baker began writing for television programmes in 1992 after being asked to prepare a piece for one of the first archive clip shows: TV Hell, which was a collection of the worst TV programmes ever. Since then he has presented television shows such as Win, Lose or Draw, Pets Win Prizes and TV Heroes, which was a series of 10-minute homages to some of Baker's entertainment idols including Fanny Cradock, Peter Glaze and the Top of the Pops audience. The episode on the Top of the Pops audience includes a clip of Baker leaping around to a performance of "Ooh What A Life" by the Gibson Brothers in 1979, captioned as "Danny Baker's first TV appearance".
Baker also began a BBC Saturday night chat show, called Danny Baker After All which borrowed its style from Late Night with David Letterman, but his style and guests did not attract the mainstream audience the slot demanded. Film critic Mark Kermode's band the Railtown Bottlers were the show's house band.
Later he fronted television adverts for Daz washing powder and Mars bar confectionery. Baker parodied his Daz ads by appearing as himself on the sitcom Me, You and Him.
During this period, Baker began presenting on BBC Radio 5's 606 football-related phone-in programme as well as the job of presenting Match of the Eighties, a six-part BBC series of football during the 1980/81 and 1985/86 seasons.
Baker was a writer on Chris Evans' TFI Friday show, as well as contributing material for presenters such as Angus Deayton and Jonathan Ross.
Guest appearances (late 1990s–2000s)
During the late 1990s he made guest appearances on comedy shows including Have I Got News for You, Shooting Stars and Room 101. During this period he appeared in the press as a result of nights out with friends Chris Evans and England footballer Paul Gascoigne. Gascoigne was under media scrutiny for drinking and socialising while preparing for tournaments. After Gascoigne was left out of the 1998 World Cup squad, Baker went on Have I Got News for You to defend his friend and criticise the omission.He also appeared on The Terry and Gaby Show from 2003 to 2004 and has appeared on BBC Two quiz show QI, becoming the show's first ever winner. Baker worked again with Charles Shaar Murray on the Ramones documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, providing an audio commentary.
More recent TV projects include The Sitcom Showdown which began on UKTV Gold in April 2006, a 2014 show featuring archived television footage for BBC4 named Brushing Up On... and a music discussion show for BBC4 named Danny Baker's Rockin' Decades. He also did Comic Relief Does The Apprentice in 2007 for Comic Relief. He also performed in The Rocky Horror Show, as the narrator, at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley and the New Wimbledon Theatre.
Baker was announced as part of BT Sport's football coverage in 2013, hosting a Friday evening show with Danny Kelly. In 2016, Chris Evans hired Baker to work as a writer on the 2016 series of Top Gear. In November 2016, he entered as a latecomer in reality television show, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here. Baker was the first person to be voted off in the series.
Radio career
BBC Radio London/5 Live/BBC Radio 1 (19891997)
Baker began his radio career on BBC Radio London in 1989, presenting Weekend Breakfast from 6 to 9am on Saturdays and Sundays. The show was produced by Chris Evans, who became a good friend to Baker. With GLR eventually opting for a more orthodox breakfast show at weekends, Baker moved to the 10am to 1pm slot on Sundays.In 1990, Baker joined the newly launched BBC Radio 5, presenting Sportscall, a phone-in sports quiz broadcast every Saturday lunchtime.
From October 1991 to October 1992 he presented 606 and, from February 1992 until October 1993, he presented Morning Edition every weekday morning. The show blended Baker's love of unusual trivia with "grown-up" music. This was where Baker first teamed up with Danny Kelly and Allis Moss. Mark Kermode added weekly film reviews, and would later appear with his band the Railtown Bottlers every week on the first series of Baker's TV show.
Baker joined BBC Radio 1 in October 1993, taking over the weekend mid-morning show from 10am to 1pm from Dave Lee Travis, who had resigned on air following the sackings instigated by Matthew Bannister and Trevor Dann during the early 1990s. However, due to poor ratings, from November 1994 he was heard on Saturdays only from 10am to 12 noon. Simon Mayo took over Sunday mornings. Baker's style led to a fall in listeners at Radio 1 but despite his tendering his resignation on at least two occasions, management added extensions to his contract. From October 1995, his Saturday show went out from 12:30 to 2:30pm. He left the station in September 1996. His co-hosts during this period included BBC continuity announcer Danny Kelly.
While continuing with his Saturday morning show on Radio 1, in 1996 Baker joined BBC Radio 5 Live to present a Sunday lunchtime show with Danny Kelly, Baker & Kelly Upfront.
On leaving Radio 1, Baker returned to Radio London to present a three-hour Sunday show from 10am to 1pm. Baker and Kelly Upfront also returned, now at Saturday lunchtime, while Baker also took on a new show, The Baker Line, a Wednesday evening version of the 606 phone-in show.
While Baker and Kelly Upfront was light-hearted, The Baker Line was darker and emotionally charged. Baker was at his most outspoken, and in early 1997 he was dismissed from Radio 5 Live when station bosses alleged that he had incited threatening behaviour during an angry outburst about a referee.