Tony Livesey: From ‘babes and orgies’ at Sunday Sport to BBC radio
From rubbing shoulders with Page Three models to becoming one of the most trusted voices on radio, Tony Livesey’s career has not taken the traditional path to becoming a household favourite.
Now, viral video pejabat ngewe anak kecil a staple of 5-Live’s drive-time schedule, the 60-year-old has transformed himself into a master of the airwaves, firmly establishing himself as a staple of the broadcaster’s output.
But now this could all be at risk as he is moved from the slot amid a furious row with his former co-presenter Clare McDonnell.
Livesey, who is married to wife Barbara with whom he has two children, got into hot water when he reportedly sent an email ‘slagging off’ his co-host’s presenting skills to her, instead of to another colleague.
20 years ago Tony Livesey was best known as the editor-in-chief of the Daily and Sunday Sport – the boozing, sexed-up newspaper famed for its racy snaps and the fly-on-the-wall documentary Sex, Lies and Aliens
Livesey worked briefly at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph before joining the Daily and Sunday Sport
BBC Radio 5 Live hosts Tony Livesey and Clare McDonnell (pictured) have fallen out and refused to work with each other again following a ‘message mishap’, according to reports
The pair have not hosted a show together since May and Livesey is set to return to his 10pm slot after McDonnel is said to have refused to work with him.
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The veteran journalist started off as a cub reporter at the Nelson Leader, and remains a huge fan of his boyhood club fan.
After qualifying he travelled to work at the Gulf News in Dubai, in 1986, staying there for a year.
‘I sound like a home bird but I am a great believer in jetting off and making your brain work a million miles a minute,’ he told pub podcast The Moon Under Water.
‘A lovely fella came in on my first day and planted four cans pf Fosters on my desk and said: ‘That will get you through until the end of Ramadan”
He added: ‘My brain worked a million miles an hour, I learnt so much about people, about life in that one year. It was worth ten years in the other jobs.’
After returning to the UK, he worked briefly at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph before joining the Daily and Sunday Sport aged 22. He made editor after just six years.
He claims he got the job after a sports reporter refused to write that Elvis had been spotted at a football match.
The publications were famed for their lurid representations of life – covered in pictures of scantily clad women and surreal news lines.
Now, a staple of 5-Live’s drive-time schedule, the 60-year-old has transformed himself into a master of the airwaves, firmly establishing himself as a staple of the broadcaster’s output. Pictured: Livesey and McDonnell together
Now, a staple of 5-Live’s drive-time schedule, the 60-year-old has transformed himself into a master of the airwaves, firmly establishing himself as a staple of the broadcaster’s output
Insiders told The Sun that Tony Livesey (pictured), 60, sent a message ‘slagging off’ Clare’s presenting to her by mistake
Famous headlines include Donkey Robs Bank, Aliens Turned My Son Into a Fishfinger and World War 2 Bomber Found on Moon. It established a ‘Big Breast Unit’, who masterminded topless shoots of women with enormous chests.
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Speaking to John Robins and Robin Allender last year, he said: ‘At the BBC my career change has gone through the biggest 180 degrees I think anybody ever has, but I am all for giving people other chances in life and I think I have earnt it.
‘I am a journalist at heart, I started off as a cub reporter back in 1983. A lot of people over the years tried to attack what we were doing on the paper or what the paper represented and things like that but I think those are people a lot of the time who didn’t read it, didn’t enjoy it.
‘It was a different time and I acknowledge that and everything I do on the show now reflects how times have moved on.’
On Sex Lies and Aliens he was presented as the enigmatic editor – scathingly talking down at his more respectable rivals.
Picking up a copy of the Independent, he said: ‘I’ve probably doubled their readership today by buying this. I just cannot understand how anyone can enjoy this newspaper. Inside it is predictable – what is the point. Don’t care.’
He did concede that the Daily Mail was ‘doing very well at the moment.’
He stayed with the papers for 18 years, where he was editor-in-chief, even writing a book in 1998 entitled: Babes, Booze, Orgies and Aliens: The Inside Story of Sport Newspapers.
His achievements included steering the paper into profit after they 0898 sex lines were banned, sending their ad revenue tumbling. He boosted sales by 100,00 a week – a rise of a third – and turned his publisher, former West ham co-owner David Sullivan, into the 50th richest man in Britain.
Speaking about the documentary, Livesey has explained that it showed off his pride in his time at the newspaper.
He said: ‘What was important to me was that it showed it was full of young people and that 40 per cent of the staff were women, which at that point was not a given, certainly at a national newspaper.
The publications were famed for their lurid representations of life – covered in pictures of scantily clad women and surreal news lines
‘And we set out to think – if we’re having a laugh then the readers are going to have a laugh. And that was the object of the matter. I don’t think I’ve had a proper job all my life.’
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Pouring contempt on critics in his book, he slammed ‘feminists’, ‘bleeding-heart liberals’ and ‘gutless, politically correct ponces’ – later telling The Independent that half of the women models earnt more than him.
But in the 1998 interview he did admit that they had ‘gone too far’ on occasion – including a vile headline about comedian Jo Brand after she criticised the paper and the idea to conceal a get well message concealed in a sausage to ‘Allo ‘Allo actor Gordon Kaye while he was recovering in hospital.
He said lessons had bean learnt – and refused to take part in future events where the question of privacy was on the line.
But after leaving in 2006, he joined the BBC as a radio presenter and made his foray into the world of television.
The broadcaster is a far cry from his former job – when the Daily and Sunday Sport folded in 2011 they said: ‘Building sites, men’s locker rooms, boys’ public school dormitories and other such all-male environments may mourn their passing. Feminists and those who prefer their news headlines unaccompanied by depictions of the female anatomy may not.’
They ended a withering obituary with the line: ‘No flowers.’
Returning to familiar ground, Livesey presented two documentaries, Crumpet: A Very British Sex Symbol and Beefcake: A Very British Sex Symbol.
He even had a short-lived stint as a quiz show host, fronting one series of Traitor in February 2004.
It wasn’t until 2010 that he received his big break at the BBC, when he began hosting the late night show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
By 2013, he had left the slot to present first the weekend breakfast programme, and then the drivetime show, becoming a major voice of the radio channel.
Famous headlines include Donkey Robs Bank, Aliens Turned My Son Into a Fishfinger and World War 2 Bomber Found on Moon. It established a ‘Big Breast Unit’, who masterminded topless shoots of women with enormous chests
He famously had a touching last conversation with cancer campaigner Deborah James shortly before her death on-air, in which he refused to say goodbye to her, instead saying he had a ‘warm hug’ ready for her.
He has had additional appearances on shows including Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and The One Show.
But he could see it all come crashing down amidst a bitter row which has left the station in ‘absolute chaos’.
It was reported overnight that Livesey had written an email filled with criticism of co-host McDonnell’s presenting style – only to send it to her by mistake.
McDonnell was left ‘livid’, a source told the Sun, and has reportedly refused to work with him since.
It’s mean their last show together was on May 7, with them alternating presenting days with stand-in co-hosts in recent weeks.
But the BBC earlier this month announced a shake-up to its programming – without giving a reason – that will see Livesey return to the 10pm slot where he started.
A source told The Sun: ‘She [Clare] no longer wants to work with him and that has caused total chaos at the station.
‘People are being shifted all over the shop and into different slots, which isn’t going down well.
‘Clare is well within her rights to be angry – but it’s made the atmosphere at 5 Live really frosty.’
BurnleyBBC