Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio 1, including five years on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. From 2001 he presented on BBC Radio 5 Live: from his debut until 2009 on a daily afternoon programme, and from 2009 until 2022 with Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on Fridays. Between January 2010 and December 2018 he was the presenter of Simon Mayo Drivetime on BBC Radio 2, for the final six months with co-host Jo Whiley. In addition to his programme on 5 Live, Mayo originally joined Radio 2 between October 2001 and April 2008 to host a weekly Album Chart Show, followed by the station's Music Club Weekly. Since March 2021, Simon Mayo Drivetime has returned on Greatest Hits Radio.
In 2008, Mayo was named as the "Radio Broadcaster of the Year" at the 34th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, and the "Speech Broadcaster of the Year" at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, receiving the latter for his "ability to paint colourful pictures of location and event and his ability to bring the very best out of his guests, encouraging conversation and interaction between them while skilfully nudging and controlling them" and for being "a master of light and shade, handling serious and lighter issues with aplomb."
Mayo is a published author. His works include a book titled Confessions, based on the Confessions slot from his radio shows, and several fictional thrillers.
Early life
Simon Mayo was born in September 1958. His father was a headteacher, and his mother, who had worked as a BBC studio manager in the 1950s, also taught for a time. His father was the headmaster of the Junior School section of Royal Russell School, Croydon, in the late 1960s, which the actor Martin Clunes attended at that time. In the early 1970s, his father was the headmaster of the Herbert Shiner School in Petworth, West Sussex, a middle school or intermediate school.
He attended St John's Primary School in Croydon, the Arden School in Knowle in the West Midlands (for one term), the independent Solihull School and Worthing High School for Boys in West Sussex, which was then a state grammar school for boys. He graduated from the University of Warwick in 1981, with a degree in history and politics.
Early career
His mother had undertaken part-time work in radio, and having occasionally experienced it with her, Mayo had wanted to work as a studio manager. But as a result of a frequency deficiency in his left ear, he failed the required hearing test, and refocused his career on presenting. Mayo spent some time at Southlands Hospital Radio. He had fully planned to start a PGCE course, but instead was offered work, for five years as a presenter with BBC Radio Nottingham from 10:45am to 2pm. With a Radio Nottingham colleague he developed a programme format called Globe Phone and sent it to Johnny Beerling, head of Radio 1, who offered him a job.
He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1986, presenting a two-hour Saturday evening show from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. In October 1987, he progressed to the weekend early slots from 6am to 8am, and then became presenter of the weekday evening show in January 1988, which went out from 7:30pm to 10pm. Five months later he was offered the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show, regarded as the most prestigious presentation job in UK radio.
Shows
BBC Radio 1
Breakfast
Mayo spent five years presenting Radio 1 Breakfast on BBC Radio 1. Throughout his tenure on the breakfast show, which was based on a "zoo" format, Mayo was joined by news anchor Rod McKenzie and by a sidekick weather and travel presenter: first Carol Dooley, then Sybil Ruscoe, Jackie Brambles, and finally Dianne Oxberry. The show's producer was Ric Blaxill, who also made regular speaking contributions.
He started his first breakfast show by playing "Somewhere in My Heart" by Aztec Camera, which was preceded by a montage of previous breakfast show hosts and then Mayo himself saying "It's me, Simon Mayo, good morning."
The programme became known for various features, including On This Day in History, sound-tracked by a looped version of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex"; the long-running cryptic game The Identik-Hit Quiz, where Mayo and his co-hosts would act out a short scene which cryptically led listeners to the title of a hit song; and his Confessions feature where members of the public sought absolution for their (often frivolous or humorous) "sins". Both On This Day in History and Confessions spawned spin-off books.
Due to frequent plays from Mayo, several unlikely hit singles reached the British charts, including "Kinky Boots" by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman; "Donald Where's Your Troosers?" by Andy Stewart; and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", sung and written by Eric Idle. For helping Monty Python have a hit with the latter, thirteen years after it first appeared on the soundtrack to The Life of Brian, Idle presented Mayo with a model bare foot, in the style of the animated version which used to end the opening titles to the television show.
Like all Radio 1's high profile presenters of the time, Mayo would take his turn to spend a week in a coastal area of the United Kingdom during the Radio 1 Roadshows which ran for two months of the summer. For a short while, he also presented an additional weekend show for the station on a Sunday afternoon, provisionally titled O Solomon Mayo, to cover for the absent Phillip Schofield, who was working in the West End.
Mid-mornings
Mayo formally gave up the breakfast show in 1993, though he had been on an extended period of paternity leave when the announcement was made. His stand-in Mark Goodier was his replacement.
Mayo took over the station's mid-morning slot on 25 October 1993, where he remained until February 2001. In addition to this, in May 1994, he presented Simon Mayo's Classic Years, where he played two hours of classic pop tunes. The show originally went out on a Sunday lunchtime from noon till 2pm, but in November 1994 went out from 10am till noon on Sundays. This lasted until October 1995.
In January 1997, Mayo made a brief return to the breakfast show for three weeks after Chris Evans was dismissed, but both Mayo and Radio 1 ruled out the possibilities of a permanent return to the programme. On his first morning as breakfast stand-in, Mayo read out an email from a man who had emigrated to New Zealand four years earlier, and had arrived back in the United Kingdom that morning, and was "delighted to hear you're still doing the breakfast show".
In March 1999, Mayo broke a world record by broadcasting for 37 hours in aid of that year's Comic Relief.
Mayo remained on the mid-morning slot until he left Radio 1 in 2001, seeing breakfast show presenters Mark Goodier, Steve Wright, Chris Evans, Mark and Lard, Kevin Greening, Zoe Ball, and Sara Cox, come and go from the slot. He was replaced by Jo Whiley.
His final show was on Friday 16 February 2001, and before signing off, he said: "One of the reasons I'm not going to 'do a DLT' is that I've nothing to complain about at all – though as I'll still be employed by the BBC it'd be a stupid thing to do. I always thought as a kid working at Radio 1 would be the most fun and the best place for any presenter to work and I still think that's true." His final track played on Radio 1 was "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead.