Local Radio
In parallel to his music career, Andrew McGibbon maintained a keen interest in performing comedy and found regular work as a fake caller on Clive Bull’s late-night LBC show, beginning in 1986. There, he developed the character of Ned Sherrin sound-a-like Rodway of Belgravia, a man trapped with his mother and in unrequited love with the girl at his local gardening shop. Shortly before Christmas 1987 he faked the murder of a turkey live on air, provoking several complaints. Another character was Eric the Gardener, a Wiltshireman inclined to speak in gnomic, poetic utterances and non sequiturs. There was also Vini of Vauxhall (based on musician Vini Reilly) and Ron, an estate dweller constantly having to calm his dogs – Sultan and Khan – during calls to the show. The last of these was a direct influence on a character in BBC Radio 4’s phone-in parody Down the Line with Gary Bellamy. Its creators have freely admitted on Front Row that Bull’s show was in their minds when making the series, having been regular listeners during the late-Eighties.
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