First viewed : Uncertain
This Yorkshire TV contribution to the late night schedule on Fridays has cropped up rather earlier than I expected. Perhaps it had been on a few weeks before I noticed it on the schedule.
I knew James Whale from my university days at Leeds. He had a three hour show in the small hours on Radio Aire where he filled out the time with phone-ins because they could only afford to play a few records. His trademark of course was being rude and abusive to most of the callers. Being a glutton for punishment, I got on about half a dozen times in 1985. The first time I was told "you sound frightfully boring" but I persevered. I once got on for about 15 minutes extolling my views on debauchery of which I have an incomplete and poor quality recording. If I ever feel like beating my head with something hard I put that on instead as a healthier option. I think the last time I was on it was in praise of James Anderton and he sent me away with a flea in the ear -"You've been on before being stupid ".
Whale made a point of not wanting students on the show - perhaps he feared being worsted in debate- but I'm not sure that he pegged me as one, with my Northern accent. He did agree to take part in a debate organised by the University Union's Debating Society which I attended. He was of course your archetypal short, bald DJ in real life and he seemed rather cowed to be in the lion's den so to speak. He didn't say anything confrontational or particularly memorable.
Now he surfaced in a TV show broadcast from his radio studio. It was riotously un-pc with Whale using every excuse to bring scantily-clad girls into the frame. Linda Nolan regularly appeared in saucy gear as his studio assistant, the peak of her brief career as a glamour girl. He also gave a platform to pariah comedians like Bernard Manning and Stan Boardman. The programme regularly pops up on Great TV Disaster type shows for Whale's attempts to remove a seriously inebriated Wayne Hussey from the studio. Occasionally, he found time to take a few calls but rarely allowed more than a sentence before cutting them off in his usual style.
I think it ran till 1992. Whale's radio career continues to this day.
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