Alexander John Riley (born 29 March 1968 in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

) is an English TV and

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presenter Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a news program * Sports commentator, an announcer who presents analysis of a sporting event * Radio personality, presenter or announcer on a radio show * Television ...

Early life and education

Born and brought up in Sheffield, Riley started performing with the city's Crucible Youth Theatre, during which time he originated, and appeared in, sketches and devised pieces, as well as appearing in a number of plays and farces at the Library Theatre.

Career

Riley had a succession of jobs, including spells managing a shopping centre and selling aerial photographs, before successfully answering an on-air appeal for researchers on

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

's Top Gear programme. A lifelong car enthusiast, Riley was in his element writing scripts for racing driver turned presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson and making many ''cameo'' appearances before being given the chance to present his own items. Amongst these were a 9-hour

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...

from London to Brighton on the world's oldest vehicle, a challenge to build a car in 16 hours from junk bought at Europe's largest auto

jumble sale A jumble sale (UK), bring and buy sale (Australia, also UK) or rummage sale (US and Canada) is an event at which second hand goods are sold, usually by an institution such as a local Boys' Brigade, Boys' Brigade Company, Scouting, Scout group, ...

and appearing as

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's sexuall ...

at the UK's premier American lifestyle festival. He went on to write and perform sketches for

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

specials on the Chelsea Flower Show and

Britain in Bloom RHS Britain in Bloom is the largest horticultural campaign in the United Kingdom. It was first held in 1963, initiated by the British Tourist Board based on the example set by Fleurissement de France (now Conseil national de villes et villages ...

, appear as a bed-hopping bigamist in a prime time BBC One documentary ''Bigamy'' and write and present Short Circuits, an innovative 10-part series for Discovery Home and Leisure which combined Scalextric with tips on making realistic scenery out of chicken wire. Moving sideways to

, he was chosen as the voice of ''The Comedy Club'', a nightly 2-hour comedy strand which played a significant part in BBC7 achieving the Sony Gold Award for ''Station Sound''. Returning to TV, Riley has presented two series of ''Boys Toys'', a series for ITV1 West Country, the ''Caravan Show'' for

Discovery Real Time Discovery Real Time was a British television channel owned by Discovery Networks UK focused on educational and learning content. History It was originally launched on 9 March 1992 as The Learning Channel, United Kingdom's version of the Ameri ...

, a tongue-in-cheek active sports series ''You Know You Want To'' (again for ITV1 Westcountry) and, after buying a Triumph TR7, ''Classic Car Club'', for Discovery Real Time. He has also been a "traveller" for Globe Trekker. For

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

's ''Mischief'' series Riley has also presented documentaries which made use of dramatic stunts to confront those responsible for problems on the UK's public transport network and for the fact that thousands of homes across the country lie empty at a time when housing is in short supply. For a 2008 ''Mischief'' documentary on food titled ''Britain's Really Disgusting Foods'', Riley attempted to create his own "Mr Riley's" meat pie using the minimum requirements set by the

Food Standards Agency The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is led by a board appoin ...

. When shown on

, it got 2.6 million viewers, prompting the creation of a series of 3 documentaries titled ''Britain's Really Disgusting Food'', aired in January 2009. His new show aired in 2010 called ''Britain's Really Disgusting Drink''. From 2015, Riley has appeared 6 times on the

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

panel show ''

The Dog Ate My Homework ''The Dog Ate My Homework'' is a British children's panel show hosted by Lauren Layfield. It was first broadcast on 17 January 2014 and was originally hosted by the comedian Iain Stirling. The show is produced by CBBC Productions Scotland ...

''. Riley also hosts '' All Over the Workplace'' for CBBC.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Alex 1968 births Living people Male actors from Sheffield English male comedians English television presenters Comedians from Sheffield