Noel Edmonds - Early Life and Radio Career

Early Life and Radio Career

The son of a headmaster who worked in Hainault, Edmonds attended Glade Primary School and Brentwood School. He was offered a place at the University of Surrey but turned it down in favour of a job as a newsreader on Radio Luxembourg, which was offered to him in 1968 after he sent tapes to offshore radio stations. In 1969, he moved to BBC Radio 1 where he began by recording trailers for broadcasts and filling in for absent DJs, such as Kenny Everett. In April 1970, Edmonds began his own two-hour Saturday afternoon programme, broadcasting from 1pm-3pm, before replacing Kenny Everett on Saturday mornings from 10am-12pm in July of that year. In October 1971 he was moved to a Sunday morning slot from 10am-12pm before being promoted to host The Radio 1 Breakfast Show from June 1973 to April 1978, taking over from Tony Blackburn. Edmonds moved back to Sunday mornings from 10am-1pm in 1978 and also presented Talkabout, an hour long talk show broadcast on Thursday evenings.

In the late 1970s, his Radio 1 Sunday show used to feature a send-up called "Musty Mind" where a phone-in contestant would be asked ludicrous questions on a parody of a serious subject, such as the "Toad Racing" or, on another occasion, "The Cultural and Social History of Rockall" - Rockall being a bald lump of uninhabited rock in the eastern Atlantic.

Edmonds left Radio 1 in March 1983, although he briefly returned in 1985, sitting in for Mike Read for two weeks on the breakfast show, and again in 1992, where he presented a special edition celebrating Radio 1's 25th birthday.

In 2003, Edmonds made a brief radio comeback, taking over the 'drivetime' broadcast on BBC Radio 2 for eight weeks while Johnnie Walker was undergoing treatment for cancer. His stint on Radio 2 lasted from 4 August until 3 October. In December 2004, Edmonds played a detective on a radio murder mystery play on local station BBC Radio Devon.