Andrew Collins (broadcaster)

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Andrew Collins

Andrew John Collins (born March 4, 1965, Northampton) is an English journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster. After studying graphic design at Chelsea School of Art, Collins first came to notice as a writer for New Musical Express in the early 1990s, subsequently taking up editorship of Q. He also formed a double-act with fellow music journalist Stuart Maconie, presenting the Sony Award-winning BBC Radio 1 show Collins & Maconie's Hit Parade, as well as a daily comedy strand called "The Grin" on Mark Goodier's Radio 1 drivetime show, and Collins & Maconie's Movie Club on ITV.

In 1998, he published his first book, Still Suitable for Miners, an authorised biography of the singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, updated in 2002 and due for a second update in 2007.

In 2001, Andrew Collins appeared, with Maconie and David Quantick, as a writer and performer in the Radio 2 comedy show Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, based on their Edinburgh Festival show, in which the three stars regaled their audience with anecdotes from their careers in music journalism. In 2004 he began presenting another Radio 2 programme, The Day the Music Died, a topical comedy show about current events in the record industry, and was team captain on two series of the Radio 4 pop quiz All The Way From Memphis. He also presents Banter on Radio 4.

Since 2002, he has been a presenter on BBC 6 Music, where he presented the weekday teatime slot from 4-7pm until April 2005, when he took over the 6 Music Chart (4-6pm on Saturdays) and a Sunday afternoon show (2-5pm), with a mix of music and guests, notably the comedian Richard Herring. Collins is also film editor for the Radio Times, and a contributing editor to The Radio Times Guide To Films. He was co-writer with Simon Day of the sitcom Grass, which debuted on BBC Three in Autumn 2003 and on BBC Two in January 2004. He co-wrote the sitcom Not Going Out for BBC One with Lee Mack.

He is a regular contributor to Doctor Who Confidential and appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama LIVE 34, playing a radio newscaster.

He is perhaps best known for his two volumes of autobiography, Where Did It All Go Right? (2003) and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (2004), humorous accounts of "growing up normal" in 1970s and '80s Britain. A third volume, That's Me in the Corner, is due in 2007.

A keen web surfer, he has been known to contribute to a number of websites including the British TV criticism site "Off The Telly".[1]

He has also written for the soap operas EastEnders and Family Affairs. Andrew and his family appeared as contestants on the quiz show Telly Addicts in 1990.

[edit] Books

Still Suitable for Miners: Billy Bragg: The Authorised Biography (2002, rev. ed.), ISBN 0753506912
Friends Reunited: Remarkable Real Life Stories from the Nation's Favourite Website (2003), ISBN 185227039X (ed.)
Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal in the 70s (2003), ISBN 0091886678
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: My Difficult Student 80s (2004), ISBN 0091896916