Born:
April 01, 1966
in
Warrington
Best Known For:
Presenting TV shows like The Big Breakfast and TFI Friday and his radio shows on commercial radio and at the BBC.
Early-life:
Christopher James Evans was born in Warrington on April Fool's Day in 1966. He is the youngest son of bookmaker Martin Evans, who died of colon cancer in 1979, and Minnie, who managed a corner shop. After his father's death, Chris worked part-time in a newsagent and attended Padgate High School.
Career:
Evans began his professional broadcasting career at Manchester Piccadilly Radio, working as an assistant to Timmy Mallett, before eventually becoming a presenter in his own right and one of the station's producers. After moving to London's GLR, he was awarded a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1. In 1992, he was head-hunted to present Channel 4's new early morning show The Big Breakfast and the rest, as they say, is history. Evans set up Ginger Productions and went on to present shows like TFI Friday, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, the Brit Awards and Comic Relief. In 1995 he helmed the Radio 1 breakfast show and attracted a cult following before controversially switching to Virgin Radio in 1997 after a row about working Fridays. In a bold move he purchased Virgin, later offloading it at a huge profit, but this time coincided with a lean spell as a presenter. After a low-key return to presenting a Radio 2 Saturday afternoon show, he succeeded Johnnie Walker as the host of the weekday Drivetime Show, and took over from Terry Wogan as the presenter of the station's breakfast show in 2010 - to huge acclaim. He also presents The One Show on BBC1 on Fridays.
Quote:
Speaking about succeeding Wogan as presenter of the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, Chris said: "I couldn't be more excited at the prospect of hosting the flagship show on one of the BBC's national networks."
Trivia:
After leaving school, Evans had a number of menial jobs, before setting up his own private detective agency and kiss-o-gram businesses.