Radio

Timmy began his entertainment career in Radio as a DJ on University Radio Warwick as a student. That lead to a summer job at BBC Radio Oxford. Stints on Radio Luxembourg, and Piccadilly Radio brought him to national recognition. Two Sony Awards followed, and the lure of TV.

But Radio is still a favourite for Timmy and he regularly podcasts. Have a listen!

Here's Timmy talking with Helen Castor and Richard Parris about his historical nomination for having lived a great life - Richard the Lionheart

Timmy, being interviewed on BBC Radio Four, nominated his historical hero Richard the Lionheart.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Piccadilly & the Network Chart

When the Network chart began on commercial radio in 1985 Timmy was the first relief DJ. Timmy did the show live from the Piccadilly Radio studios in Manchester.

“Number one was that awful thing by Phil Bailey when I wanted Frankie!"

Little did he know that a few years later he’d be topping the charts himself with Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

“Now that’s what I call proper pop
music!!!"

And so our Timmy became the first person ever to host and then top the charts!!!

“When I was younger, my big brother Paul and I used to listen every week to Alan Freeman on Pick of the Pops! I never dreamed that one day I’d be counting down the nation’s favourites. I know how important it is when you want your favourite to be top! I also know how great it is to want to be top yourself!!!!!"

Radio Luxembourg

Timmy enjoyed a winter of deep snow in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg broadcasting from the old Villa Louvigny.

Timmy was once asked:

“Do they still have that revolving dish?"

“What revolving dish???"

“Isn’t that why the signal keeps dropping in and and out?!"

The Villa Louvigny was steeped in broadcasting history. Down in the basements were the old transmitters from the days of the second world war occupation by the Germans. Lord Haw Haw made his famous broadcasts from there.

Timmy arrived to join a team which included Rob Jones, Tony Prince, Bob Stewart, Ian Brass, Stuart Henry, and Benny Brown!

The studios were on the upper corridor which were shared with the French, Italian and German services. On the wall behind was a big map of the world with pins showing where people could hear Luxembourg on short wave.

During the snowy winter of 1982 Timmy struggled to roller skate to work from his lodgings in Jean Jaures street. He lived with a family of expats and a huge Alsation dog called Panzer. The daughter announced one day.

Years later on a Wacaday filming trip, Timmy returned to RTL to film a piece about his own hits! The Radio Luxembourg reunion brought Timmy together with many old friends and colleagues.

Click below to listen to Timmy’s highlights on
Radio Luxembourg.

In August 2008 the Radio Luxembourg DJs reunited for a celebration of 75 years of the Station of the Stars! Fab 2008!

DJs from four decades came together to reminisce and share a fabulous weekend of memories. Organised and hosted by Sean Tilley, great pop DJ names like Tony Prince, David Kid Jensen, Paul Burnett, Emperor Rosko, Mike Read, Mark Wesley, Mike Hollis, and Benny Brown shared great tales and made many more as listeners from across the UK tuned in to hear again what made 2008 great!

Read the story in The Daily Mirror here!

BBC Radio Oxford

Afternoon’s are fun on BBC Radio Oxford. Timmy’s been back on air, hitting the hits and causing on air mayhem! He began by making short features and doing got his first big break on air when Elvis died. Timmy suggested a request show of Presley music and was given the job of hosting it.

“It was a huge success which of course I put down to my own skills!" Timmy said modestly.

Not long after that he got to do his own show – the lunchtime lurkabout with TOTTTTT – Timmy on The Tranny Through Til Two! There was a memorable occasion on this show when Timmy gave away a fridge freezer to whoever could come up with the best way of selling ice cream to eskimos!

Timmy’s biggest success at Radio Oxford was the daily afternoon kids show. TIMMY ON THE TRANNY! Timmy has always had a way with talking to kids, and that special magic led to Timmy making his own mark on air. In the show there were homemade jingles, the boron battleboard – a classic game of boron battleships, and all the big pop names – including the Buggles, Duran Duran, Shakin Stevens, and the Boomtown Rats.

One of the most popular features was a radio serial written by Timmy called The Adventures of Prince Timmy and the Quest for the Golden Tranny.

The Great Trannyoid in the sky sent Prince Timmy on a mission to rescue the golden tranny (which played great pop music and told the funniest jokes) from the borons who had kidnapped it.
Prince Timmy had a bright sidekick called Susan Zinc (who was always on her metal!). Susan Zinc is now known as Emma B on Radio 1!

Among the people who helped on the show and got a leg up the career ladder were Arabella Warner (who went on to present and co-produce the Wide Awake Club) and Jon Briggs (the voice over king), and Rob Bonnet (now BBC Breakfast sport).

Timmy is making a return to the Radio Oxford airwaves for a number of special shows.

Timmy gives a quiet well behaved interview on the telly at Oxford!

The station staff have tried telling Timmy what to do. Did he take any notice? Of course not!

Timmy began working at Radio Oxford after leaving Warwick University.

"I left Warwick on the Friday and started at Radio Oxford on the Monday."

Jumping off the roof! This is one of my favourite publicity photos!
My tie is festooned with multi coloured Timmy on the Tranny badges - a great collectors item these days. they were made by Banbury plastics who still make the brand new Mallett Maniac badges.

At the first recording session 7 year old Emma Boughton asked us: "What's the hottest part of the sun? - Page 3!"

A typically messy outside broadcast on Banbury road. The little girl is a young Emma B - now of Radio 1 fame (who played Susan Zinc in prince Timmy and the Quest for the Golden Tranny). Alongside Timmy is the delightful "Slug" - lovely Caroline who ran the record library!

Michelle Cousins plots some custard pie mayhem on Timmy!

So that's where the dress sense came from?

...and the Trannyoid winner, Michelle, got a £100 voucher to spend at Etam!

Timmy team! Producer Lou, Timmy and South Today's Geraldine Peers enjoyed a great Bank holiday special!

Timmy & Joy on bonfire night 1979. This is a favourite photo showing Joy and I discussing the show. She's bringing in dedications for me to read and we're having a laugh about some of the calls. I was giving away Timmy's terrific treacle toffee - ideal for bringing out your fillings!

The Midnight DJ (except it's only half past 6 in the evening!!)

This stunning haircut was done for the Radio oxford Marathon. I had my initials carved in the back of my head in case I forgot who I was!! The Glasses were my tribute to the Buggles!

Timmy on the Tranny: Centre Radio

The promotional budget was obviously small because the first Timmy pic was this black and white photo, which didn’t do justice to the purple hair and scarlet spex and T shirt!

Timmy was the first presenter on Centre Radio in Leicester. Typically, he did the very first breakfast show in September 1981 with multi coloured hair, dressed in a dinner jacket and outragous bowtie! It was filmed by a BBC documentary crew (who wanted to learn how it should be done!)

The station was housed at Granville House, Granville Road Leicester and for publicity stunts they called on the unmissable Timmy to roller skate round the town and turn up at schools with his purple hair to scare the teachers and get the kids tuned in!

In the days before AA Roadwatch Timmy’s breakfast show traffic reports came from the local taxi firm “It sounded like he had a camera on every street" said the opposition!

Timmy also did Sunday mornings 10-1pm. 6 day weeks was unusual in those days.

BBC Three Counties Radio

This was a departure for Timmy and an enjoyable challenge to make a daily three hour speech show relevant and funny. It was here that Timmy used the all speech show to deliver exciting comedy and cutting edge current affairs to a wide ranging audience.

Fast paced and entertaining; it had regular features from the station staff including:

BERT TROUT- THE MAN WHO KNOWS NOWT!
(Played by Ian Pearce)

TOBY WAN KENOBE – May the 31st be with you! – The compeition clown!

TINA ARIZONA – The agony aunt who left you in agony.

SISTER RESISTER – The nun who was fun!?

And the tallest assistant on the planet LADDER (Steve Swann is now a talented TV journalist but here he was Timmy’s outrageous producer).

There were also loads of fun games with classic jingles such as:

How thick is your sister?
Has your best friend ever kissed her?
Is she any good at Twister?
How think is your Si-i-ster?!!!

BBC Radio Berkshire

“Which button do I press?!" Timmy is let loose on the airwaves of BBC Radio Berkshire Sunday mornings 10-1pm. “What have we done?!" asked the BBC.

“We tried to lock him out of the building but he hid in the bins and we don’t know how to get him out!"

Wendy Craig's portrait as painted by Timmy.

Timmy’s friend and neighbour Wendy Craig came to talk about toast and the latest series of the The Royal!

It’s a very busy year for Wendy, which is a good thing because she adores working and entertaining.

There’s the new series of the Forsyte Saga on ITV; a spin off from Hartbeat called The Royal which is set in Scarborough and shot in Bradford where Wendy gets to wear her hair in the biggest beehive you’ve ever seen!

Then there’s rehearsals for The Circle – a play by Somerset Maughan, a new radio play and the list gets longer. It hardly leaves time to enjoy the view:

“I like stretching my eyes looking around and finding nothing in the way"

Wendy came to Cookham Dean with her husband in 1970 and her two sons grew up here:

“I love the variety of walks in Cookham – today it could be the woods, or the river, or the golf course or the meadows."

Wendy is also president of Elizabeth House, one of Cookham’s wonderful facilities for our seniors, and she enjoys gardening, reading and turning up the volume of her classical music!

Mister Mallett was joined by the terror that is Mini Mallett! Billy joined his dad on air to play “How Sad is your Dad?!" They gave away family tickets to Legoland, and play all their favourite hits including McFly (we managed to play it nearly 20 times – commercial stations repeat their records every half hour and we don’t think it’s nearly enough!)

When it came to Itsy Bitsy and other great Timmy hits, Billy pointed out:
“Dad, you came 37th in the list of all time worst records ever!"

When Andrew Peach got married he made the mistake of asking Timmy to step in a for five weeks and do his Saturday 9-12:30 morning show!

Playing games like “How Mad is Your Mother!" and side two of Abbey Road – well they aren’t the sort of thing that usually happens…. “It’s a bit different to what we expect in the Royal County," said the boss! Timmy in his usual tactful way replied “BLEUGH!"