Andrew Collins (broadcaster)

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For other persons of the same name, see Andrew Collins.

Andrew Collins

Nationality	British

Andrew Collins (born March 4, 1965, Northampton) is an English journalist, scriptwriter, and broadcaster.

[edit] Life

After studying graphic design at Chelsea School of Art, Collins started writing for New Musical Express in 1989, subsequently taking up editorship of Q in 1995, having worked on Select and Empire (where he was briefly editor for three issues in 1995, before moving over to 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, after forging their style on a daily comedy strand called "The Grin" on Mark Goodier's BBC Radio 1 drivetime show, and Collins & Maconie's Movie Club on ITV. He is also a very recognisable face on many list shows that are shown on BBC/ITV/Channel 4 (e.g. The Most Annoying Pop Songs We Love to Hate). He stated on BBC Three's The Most Annoying TV Programmes We Love To Hate that he had appeared on 37 such list shows (actually an approximate figure), and that this, the 37th, was going to be his last one. He subsequently appeared on Heroes Unmasked on BBC Three. He devoted a full chapter to the experience of appearing as a talking head on list/nostalgia shows in his book That's Me in the Corner.

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

In 2001, Andrew Collins appeared, with Maconie and fellow New Musical Express journalist David Quantick, as a writer and performer in the BBC 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, now in its sixth series, and was team captain on both series of the BBC Radio 4 pop quiz All The Way From Memphis. He also presents Banter on BBC Radio 4, returning in April 2008.

He became a presenter on BBC 6 Music in 2002, fronting 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. In January 2007, the Chart was moved to Sundays (at 2pm) and reduced to an hour, while his Sunday show went to Saturdays (4-6pm). This arrangement lasted until the end of March 2007, when Collins stopped doing these two regular shows and effectively left BBC 6 Music, having clocked up five solid years with the station. He still deputises for other presenters on the network.

Collins is also film editor for the Radio Times, and a contributing editor to The Radio Times Guide To Films. He writes a monthly column called Whatever for The Word magazine. He cut his scriptwriting teeth on the soap operas EastEnders and Family Affairs. 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-writes the sitcom Not Going Out^[1] for BBC One with Lee Mack, which won the Breakthrough Award at the Royal Television Society Awards in March 2007. The programme also won the Rose D'Or for Best Sitcom at the 2007 Rose D'Or TV Awards in Lucerne and was nominated for two British Comedy Awards in November 2007. Not Going Out returned for a second series in September 2007. A third series was announced in November 2007. Collins has contributed to BBC Three's 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 three volumes of autobiography, humorous accounts of "growing up normal" in 1970s Northampton, struggling with art school in London in the 1980s, and forging a media career in the 1980s and 1990s: Where Did It All Go Right? (2003) (a Sunday Times bestseller), Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (2004), and That's Me in the Corner, which draws its title from a line from the REM song "Losing My Religion", published in May 2007.

Collins and his family appeared as contestants on the quiz show Telly Addicts in 1990. They reached the semi-finals.

A keen web user, he contributes under his own name to assorted forums and message boards. He writes a blog called Never Knowingly Underwhelmed.

In August 2006, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Northampton (which he attended when it was still called Nene College in 1983-84). In 2007, he was made patron of Thomas's Fund, a Northampton-based music therapy charity for children with life-limiting illnesses.

In February 2008, he and Richard Herring started to produce a fortnightly podcast under the name Collings and Herrin. The podcast went weekly in March 2008.

[edit] Books

Still Suitable for Miners: Billy Bragg: The Authorised Biography (2002, rev. ed.), ISBN 0-7535-0691-2
Friends Reunited: Remarkable Real Life Stories from the Nation's Favourite Website (2003), ISBN 1-85227-039-X (ed.)
Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal in the 70s (2003), ISBN 0-09-188667-8
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: My Difficult Student 80s (2004), ISBN 0-09-189691-6
That's Me in the Corner: Adventures of an Ordinary Boy in a Celebrity World (2007'), ISBN 0-09-189786-6