Danny Baker: Classic or Dud

PLEASE tell me that's not happening.

Sad to see him go (though, in recent weeks, I've been craving sleep so much I've been hitting the snooze button more often than not).

Radio 4 is an option I suppose. Today tends to make me angrier than I want to be at that time of the morning though. Is there a channel that just does the shipping forecast all the time?

Resonance should do a breakfast show. They've got a clear field. Hello chaps! I'm available at a competitive rate!

xpost haha I think I would listen to Les Dawson in the morning. Lugubrious.

Danny Baker has announced he has cancer. Awful news. From his Fbook...

Hello cats and kittens,

Apologies for the cloak and d. over recent weeks. However as it appears this is going to continue for the forseeable I really ought to offer up some sort of breadcrumbs trail as to what's going on. (As you know I am queasy about introducing vulgar real life onto the vaudeville stage so let's keep this crisp.)

After a pretty mouldy diagnosis about a month back I finally begin chemotherapy on Monday with further radiotherapy from January. Yes radiotherapy; can you beat it? This being so, the old treehouse baggy pants will be donned but sparingly. Once the quacks have soundly thrashed this thing I shall return like a rare gas and as if out of a trap. In the meantime I am watching Tommy Steele box sets (and has there ever been a more lying title to a film than TS's "It's All Happening"?) and urge you all to keep yakking up a storm and laugh extra loud at the incumbents.

Thank you for all the best wishes and concern from those who suspected as much about my "condition" and by all means keep ringing up Baylen and Amy to demand more and more Atomic Rooster and Spooky Tooth records.

So. Manly handshake. Walk right on. In the words of King George, "What what and there it is..."

DB

Had kinda guessed what was wrong with him when he said something on his show last week about having to take time off at short notice over the coming months.

His current Radio 5 Saturday morning show is definitely a favourite. Alan Davies covering for him this week was unbearably awkward.

the b&w tv show he made in the early 80s about heavy metal and air guitarers was brilliant. plus i've only ever read good things about him by the people who knew him so he gets a lifetime good guy pass from me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3wI-AjvwPU

his last show for a while... http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00c25ws/Danny_Baker_with_the_original_Candyman_for_one_night_only/

i think this dude is so awesome, btw.

Via Twitter:

The call I have been waiting for just happened. Turns out I won. I'm all clear. I'm well again.

Y*A*Y!!!!!

Aw, I can't say I'm a fan, but right now this is just the best news ever! Thanks for flagging it up, Ned.

Yer welcome!

Okay someone tell me why the UK Twitter crowd is going on about him right now. All I can gather is that he's been sacked but has two hours to himself to rip into the BBC right this second...?

A week before he's entered into the Radio Hall Of Fame, he's discovered that his daily show on BBC London is to be axed.

I think he's a treasure, and while I don't often get a chance to hear his show, he is a great radio personality. His breakfast show on BBC London was a wonderful way to wake up, and is much missed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QolgU8thhJ0

daaaaannnnnyyyyyyy baaaaaakkkkkeeeeerrrrrrrr

I understand he is tearing BBC London a new one live on the air, although I haven't actually heard it.

BBC London's not on iplayer, is it? Or is it?

here?

aha! cheers!

there's always this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18493582

wow cool, a guy bigging himself up while slating the bbc, awesome. there's just not enough criticism of the bbc lately.

even moyles left with less self-congratulation than this

hmm. kinda think that's an insight-light take on the situation myself.

why, because you happen to be a fan of his? he just said how much he earns and described himself as the best broadcaster in britain. do you have the bbc budget to hand?

note the bbc did him the honour of quoting his side of the story in their news report.

placed prominently on their front page

do you still work for the bbc, lg?

not anymore.

note the bbc did him the honour of quoting his side of the story in their news report.

well, that's reporting 101, isn't it?

i just think it's one word against another, they won't even comment on him saying it's about money. i'm not claiming the beeb is run in some perfect way, but this sort of pile-on is just pretty unfair. and it's a bit unfair of him too, he's been given a good career by the beeb and it's not as if he'll be destitute and jobless now.

I hate unfair Beeb-drubbing as much as the next guy (who isn't owned by Murdoch) but I'm really quite disappointed by this news, as I think Danny's a great broadcaster, and I'd much rather the corporation spent their money on him than spunking it on another stupid and expensive brand ident ad campaign. I mean, there's nuances here beyond Baker being an anti-BBC egotist really, aren't there?

yes, definitely. i can understand laying into the bbc, i mean, self-flagellation is so inherent to being part of it (or having once worked there) like, half the time you feel you are working against the bbc not for it.

all of that said, when someone so public comes out and slates it, using the language he has used, it is instantly interpreted in that "oh bloody bbc bosses" way that kind of fuels the same distaste for the entire organisation.

i don't know why i'm defending them, i will never, ever, not hold bitterness about the way i had to leave one job in bbc. NEVER! it's a calm bitterness now but it's still there.

that said I'm not announcing this to thousands of people.

Erm, you might be...

I am probably overestimating the readership of this thread.