Patrick Doody (11 November 1938 – 28 February 1990) was a British broadcaster. Although his father was the owner of a theatre company, Doody chose to go into broadcasting work rather than acting. After serving time in the

Royal Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

, he began his career with the

British Forces Broadcasting Service The British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides radio and television programmes for His Majesty's Armed Forces, and their dependents worldwide. Editorial control is independent of the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces themsel ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. He later moved to

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, where he became best known for presenting ''Night Ride'' for Radio 1 and Radio 2. Doody moved into television and worked as a continuity announcer for

Border Television ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the Channel 3 service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the England/Scotland border region, covering most of Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, the ...

in Carlisle and

Tyne Tees Television ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV television franchisee for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from stu ...

in Newcastle, latterly becoming Senior Announcer at Border. He freelanced at

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 ...

and voiced many local commercials for

Metro Radio Hits Radio North East, formerly Metro Radio, is an Independent Local Radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. The station launched in 1974 as Metro Radio. It broadcasts to County Durham, No ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

. His voice was also heard as the announcer of Border's popular networked series, Mr. and Mrs. He also ran his own broadcast facilities company, Videoforce Ltd. Doody died from carbon monoxide poisoning on 28 February 1990 at the age of 51. An inquest heard that he had money problems and was found dead in a fume-filled car in his garage by his second wife Jill He was on announcing duty at Border two nights before his death.

Microbe

The 1969 single "Groovy Baby" by Microbe featured the voice of Pat Doody's then three-year-old son, Ian. The song was written by Chris Andrews and came about after Ian, brought into Radio 1 from time to time by his father (who was employed as the station's newsreader at the time), appeared on-air uttering late 1960s slang such as 'Groovy' on shows hosted by radio presenters such as Dave Cash. Cash heavily championed the record (and was involved with the recording of the B-side "Your Turn Now" credited to the Microbe Ensemble), which resulted in the record spending seven weeks in the UK charts, with a peak of number 29. This makes Ian Doody the youngest male artist ever to get a top 40 hit in the UK charts (as seven month old Jessica Smith appeared on the Teletubbies' number one hit in 1997).

References

Radio and television announcers 1938 births 1990 deaths Suicides in the United Kingdom BBC Radio 2 presenters 1990 suicides 20th-century British Army personnel Royal Corps of Signals soldiers {{UK-tv-bio-stub