Daryl Denham is a British disc jockey, radio presenter and songwriter.

Early career

Denham's career started at school, where he was active in producing pop music productions in school concerts, organizing pop quizzes and writing and performing parody songs. He worked privately as a DJ in his own time. After leaving school, he began his first live show at the " Radio Forest" community hospital radio station, based in Epping, Essex. He later became chairman of the organisation and is still a member there today. His early broadcasting career was at

BBC Radio Kent BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Great Hall in Tunbridge Wells. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

, Invicta FM, (where he once fell asleep during an overnight show), SGR-FM in Essex and Chiltern FM in Dunstable. In 1992, Denham also began working as a stand up comedian in London, but gave it up to concentrate on breakfast radio.

Hallam FM

Denham moved to

Hallam FM Hallam FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 283,000 ...

in South Yorkshire in 1996. He presented both the breakfast show and a late night spin-off "Daryl Denham's Unshaven Haven" (aka The X Rated Daryl Denham Show), which was a more risque version of a breakfast show format, featuring parody songs and skits.

100.7 Heart FM

In 2000, Denham moved to

100.7 Heart FM Heart North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle. History Century Radio Century Radio was the first regional station for Nort ...

in Birmingham, presenting their Breakfast Show and winning the

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academ ...

Breakfast Music Award. He was summed up by the judges as "a welcome blast of fresh air....Daryl is a broadcaster who does not underestimate or patronise his audience and avoids relying on base, easy humour. He also showed a refreshing depth of understanding of the music played. An extremely rich and creative programme very worthy of a Gold Award." Whilst at Heart FM, he performed several spoof sketches, off-the-cuff jokes and wacky competitions. He remained there until December 2001.

Virgin Radio

On 2 January 2002, Denham broadcast his first national show, as

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

hired him to present their 5pm7pm Drivetime show from Monday to Thursday and a Saturday Morning show from 10am to 2pm. From 28 January 2002, Denham presented the 6am10am Breakfast Show, after the sudden departure of Steve Penk, who was expected to take over the Drivetime show. As Denham took over Breakfast, evening show presenters Pete Mitchell &

Geoff Lloyd Geoff Barron Lloyd (born 20 April 1973) is an English radio presenter, television host, podcast host and writer, best known for his talk radio and music shows. Early life Lloyd was born in Withington, Manchester, England,Barrie White"Radio's ...

(aka Pete & Geoff) took the Drivetime show. In addition to the Breakfast show, Denham still continued with his Saturday morning show. On 6 January 2003, Denham took over the weekday drivetime show from 5pm to 8pm, with Pete & Geoff taking over breakfast. In July 2003 his drivetime show went out from 4pm to 7pm. In January 2004, Denham took over the Weekend Breakfast show for the station from 6am to 10am, where he remained until he left the station in June the same year.

Century 100-102

Denham moved to

100-102 Century FM Heart North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle. History Century Radio Century Radio was the first regional station for Nor ...

in the North-East of England in August 2004, presenting the weekday breakfast show from 5:30am to 9am. However, in April 2005 he resigned on-air, stating that he had personal problems and was leaving the station.

Back to Hallam

On Saturday 18 June 2005, Denham returned to

in South Yorkshire, taking over a Saturday Morning show from 10am to 2pm. In January 2006, he took over the Weekday Mid-Morning show for the station from 9am to 1pm, where he remained until early 2007.

Real Radio Yorkshire

Denham joined Real Radio Yorkshire on 5 March 2007, taking over the weekday evening show from 7pm to 10pm. He presented their Breakfast show with Gayle Lofthouse before taking over the Real Drive Home from 4pm to 8pm with Dixie replacing him on the Real breakfast show. A further move in the schedules saw Denham move to mid-mornings (9am1pm) in 2011, with Pete Egerton moving to drive. On 2 November 2012 he presented his final mid-morning show for Real Radio.

Smooth Radio

Daryl was heard on

Smooth Radio Smooth Radio may refer to: * Smooth Radio (2010), the original national network in the UK * Smooth Radio (2014) See also * Smoothfm smoothfm is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by NOVA Entertainment. From original ...

through the night in December 2012. He was also the main cover for

Simon Bates Simon Philip Bates (born 17 December 1946) is an English disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular pres ...

on the Smooth Radio Breakfast during the Christmas 2012 period. Following a major overhaul of the station's schedule in January 2013 Denham became Smooth's weekend breakfast presenter, succeeding

Pat Sharp Patrick Sharpin, known professionally as Pat Sharp (born 25 October 1961), is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's ITV programme '' Fun House'', and his extensi ...

. In January 2014, it was announced Denham had left Smooth Radio with immediate effect.

BBC Radio Kent

In 2015 Daryl joined

. The station had overhauled its format, with a punchier style and is marketed as "radio you can't help but interact with". Daryl now regularly presents a late-night phone-in and comedy show "Call Daryl", on Friday nights from 10pm to 1am, as well as covering for other presenters. Daryl also presents Drive Time 3pm till 6pm (gmt) on Ocean Radio in Spain, and the Retro chart show every Sunday 3 till 6pm

Songwriting

Daryl Denham has hit the charts twice. Whilst at Virgin he re-wrote the lyrics of the Jam's 'Going Underground', taking ' Go England' to number 26 as The England Boys. Then in 2005, he scored a number 11 hit as Pondlife with 'Ring Ding Ding', the original Crazy Frog song. He has also written songs for Kid Creole and Black Lace.

Stand Up - The Musical

In September 2013 Denham produced a new musical he'd written called 'Stand Up'. It told the stories of three comedians at different stages in their lives and starred

Darren Day Darren Day is an English actor, singer and television presenter, well known for his West End theatre starring roles. Early life Day's paternal grandfather was a support act to George Formby in the days of music hall. Day undertook drama cl ...

Lionel Blair Lionel Blair (born Henry Lionel Ogus; 12 December 1928 – 4 November 2021) was a Canadian-born British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, and television presenter. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he made regular appearances as a danc ...

Billy Pearce Billy Pearce (born 1 February 1951) is an English performer, comedian, actor and entertainer. A regular on UK television in the 1980s and 1990s, Pearce has been described as a "supreme entertainer". He particularly loves performing at the Alhambr ...

and

Dean Sullivan Dean Sullivan (born 7 June 1955) is an English actor and director, best known for playing Jimmy Corkhill in the Channel 4 soap opera '' Brookside'' (19862003). Early life Sullivan was born in Liverpool on 7 June 1955. He graduated from Lancas ...

. The production ran at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton to positive reviews and showcased twenty new songs Denham had written with co-producer Maurice Cheetham.

Trivia

* Denham is a co-founder of Podshows.com, a podcasting company. * Denham appeared on former

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 pu ...

gameshow, '' Keynotes'', lasting 3 days & winning a grand total of £60. * He made a cameo appearance as the 'brave' truck driver in the 2009 film, 'Freight'.

References

External links

A biography

Jingles from S2Blue for the 'X Rated Daryl Denham Show

Stand-up the Musical Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denham, Daryl Living people British radio personalities British radio DJs Virgin Radio (UK) Year of birth missing (living people)