Nicky Campbell OBE

Nicky was born in Edinburgh in 1961 of Irish birth parents and adopted at six days old. He went to the city’s Edinburgh Academy and then onto Aberdeen University to study History. It was there that his broadcasting career started at Northsound Radio in 1981 – at first as a jingle writer then as presenter of the ‘World of Opera’ and before long hosting the Breakfast Show.

After moving to Capital Radio in 1986 he began his long association with the BBC at Radio 1 in 1987. There he hosted several programmes including the iconic “Into the night” programme with its mix of music and speech. A decade later Campbell moved to Radio Five Live to present the award winning mid-morning show and phone-in. He began hosting the Breakfast programme in 2003, which he still presents with his close friend Shelagh Fogarty. They recently won the Sony Gold award for best Breakfast Show and Nicky picked up the Sports Gold for his coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

His career in television began in the late 80’s presenting ITV’s Wheel of Fortune and Top of the Pops. It has spanned the entire spectrum – from gameshows to Newsnight and Panorama. Other TV credits include The Big Race [ITV], The Rugby World Cup 1999 [ITV], Wheels [CH4], The Travelling Talk Show [CH4], David Blaine [The Event] [Sky1/CH4], The Last Word [Mentorn/BBC Scotland], Come And Have A Go [BBC1], The Rest of Your Life [ITV] and Battle of the Brains [BBC2].

In the 1990s Campbell cemented his position as a leading exponent of live debate when for fourteen years, he fronted the legendary series Central Weekend Live that later transferred to London as Carlton Live and also became an ITV Network show. He was also Watchdog’s longest running presenter, fronting the show for nearly nine years. He currently anchors the highly successful live faith and ethics debate show, ‘The Big Questions’ on BBC One. He featured in the BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ in 2007 where he traced his adoptive family’s roots in Scotland and Australia. He now presents the popular long running series Long Lost Family with Davina McCall on ITV.

Nicky is Patron of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). He wrote a critically and commercially successful exploration of adoption – Blue Eyed Son in 1994 and speaks all over the country about his own adoption and tracing story.  He has also written and co- produced a jazz/swing album, ‘Moonlight’s Back in Style’ released in Sept 2009 and performed by the actor and singer Mark Moraghan who he met when they both appeared on the BBC’s celebrity singing contest ‘Just the Two of Us’.

Nicky plays the piano, guitar, ukulele and lives in South London with his wife, four daughters and dog Maxwell.