Andrew Nicholas Castle (born 15 November 1963) is a British broadcaster and former tennis player. Castle was Great Britain's number 1 in singles tennis in 1986, reaching as high as World No. 80 in June 1988, and No. 45 in doubles in December 1988, with

Tim Wilkison Tim Wilkison (born November 23, 1959) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Tennis career Wilkison was the No. 1 ranked junior in the United States and played on the tour for over 25 years. He prepped at McCallie Scho ...

of the United States. Castle reached one Grand Slam final in his career in the 1987 Australian Open mixed doubles event with Anne Hobbs. He won three ATP titles in men's doubles, as well as one title on the Challenger tour. He won in prize money (equivalent to in 1992). Between 2000 and 2010, Castle was a presenter on the now defunct

ITV breakfast ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited (previously known as ''GMTV, GMTV Limited'') is the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November ...

programme ''

GMTV GMTV (an initialism for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ''ITV Breakfast, ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited'', was the name of the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the Uni ...

'', sharing duties with Ben Shephard to present its weekday magazine programme. In 2009, he began presenting the ITV daytime game show '' Divided''. In 2013, Castle began presenting for LBC. In November 2023, without any official announcement or explanation before or since, he was removed from all LBC broadcasting. He has also taken part in ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'' and '' 71 Degrees North''.

Early life

Castle was born in

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. His mother, Lavinia Pollock (the great-grandchild of

Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...

), married Frank Castle in April 1953. Andrew was born in 1963. Castle won a tennis scholarship to Millfield School in Somerset but at 15 his parents separated and he had to leave. Another scholarship sent him to Kansas. He taught tennis at the Wichita Racquet Club to both children and adults. Castle's father ran the fishmonger's in

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. I ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, where his customers included the lady of nearby Chartwell House,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

's wife Clementine. He went on to own shops in

North Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to t ...

;

Norbury Norbury is an List of areas of London, town and suburb in south London. It shares the postcode London SW16 with neighbouring Streatham. The area is mainly in the borough of Croydon London Borough Council, Croydon, with some parts extending int ...

; Stoneleigh, Surrey; and owned a fish and chip shop in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

(Kingston Road).

Tennis career

Castle became a professional tennis player in 1986, after completing a marketing degree whilst on an athletic scholarship in the United States. During his playing career, he was regularly ranked number one in Great Britain. In 1986 Castle reached the third round at Queens Club. He won three tour doubles titles, and was a mixed doubles finalist at the 1987 Australian Open. His 1987 run at the US Open was his best career singles performance at a Grand Slam event, when he reached the third round by defeating David Pate and Jimmy Brown, before losing to

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...

in four sets. He represented Britain at the Seoul Olympic Games of 1988, and the Barcelona Olympic Games of

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

. Castle was a regular member of the British

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

team and the European Cup team. His career-high rankings were World No. 80 in singles and No. 45 in doubles. Castle represents Surrey at squash at over-45s level, and continues to play representative tennis around the world.

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Media career

After retiring from professional tennis in 1992, Castle served as a commentator and presenter for

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

. As well as tennis, he presented basketball, motor racing and golf for

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

. He joined

in September 2000 as a presenter. After a decade, it was announced in June 2010 he was to leave the programme. Castle presented the final broadcast of ''GMTV'' on 3 September 2010.After a decade on the sofa, Andrew Castle bows out of GMTV
ITV Press Centre, 10 June 2010 He is a member of the

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

-nominated

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

tennis team, covering

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, the Aegon Championships at

Queen's Club The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "HSBC Championships" for spo ...

, the French Open, Australian Open and the

. Castle has been lead commentator on all men's singles finals since 2003, working alongside

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...

Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) during the early 2000s. Henman won 15 career ATP Tour titl ...

and John Lloyd. In 2005, he presented the quiz show ''Perseverance''; he presented two series of the teatime game show '' Divided'' (2009–2010); and appeared on '' Beat the Star'' on 24 May 2009 – all on ITV. He took part in ITV programme '' 71 Degrees North'' in 2010. Castle previously presented the breakfast show on Smooth Radio and continued on the station with ''The Great American Songbook'' on Sunday evenings until 2019. He presented a weekend breakfast show on speech-based radio station LBC. He has been off air since November 2023 without any apparent explanation from LBC. As of November 2023, Matthew Wright has replaced Andrew Castle on Weekend Breakfast at LBC.

''Strictly Come Dancing''

Castle competed in the sixth series of the celebrity dance competition, ''

''. His partner was

Ola Jordan Aleksandra 'Ola' Jordan ( Grabowska; born 30 September 1982) is a Polish-British professional ballroom dancer, specialising in Latin American dancing. She appeared as a professional on the British BBC One television show ''Strictly Come Danci ...

. Castle's appearance marked the third time a main ''

'' presenter had participated in the show. After week 4, he was placed 11th out of the remaining 12 contestants, with an average score of 22.5/40. Castle was voted out after round 7 of the competition on 2 November 2008. He scored 21 points for his samba, which placed him second from bottom on the judges' leader board. He appeared in the dance-off with

Heather Small Heather Marguerita Small (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul music, soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud (Heather Small album), Proud'', was released in 2000. Her second and ...

, who was saved by all four of the judges.

Personal life

Castle married Sophia Runham in May 1991. They have two daughters, including musical theatre actress Georgina. He is the great-great-grandson of

, a prominent socialist, women's rights activist, and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule.

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Castle, Andrew 1963 births English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English game show hosts English sports broadcasters English television presenters English male tennis players British male tennis players Living people People educated at Millfield Olympic tennis players for Great Britain Sportspeople from Epsom Tennis players from London Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Motorsport announcers British golf commentators LBC radio presenters