Life and Career
Campbell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was adopted as a four-day old baby, and was educated at the independent school Edinburgh Academy. His adoptive mother was a psychiatric social worker and his adoptive father a publisher of maps.
After graduating from the University of Aberdeen with a 2:1 in history, he toyed with ideas of becoming an actor and got involved in commercial production for radio in order to gain his Equity card. At university, his best friend had been the actor Iain Glen. He worked at Northsound Radio in Aberdeen from 1981 to 1985, first as a jingle writer, before going on to host the breakfast show.
He worked at London station Capital Radio from 1986–87 and joined BBC Radio 1 in 1987, presenting a Saturday night show from 10pm-midnight. In early 1988, he took over the weekend early morning show from 6-8am from Simon Mayo and in October 1988 he presented the Monday-Thursday late-evening music and interview show which he named Into the Night, which went out from 10pm-midnight. Guests included political figures, with Campbell interviewing John Major in 1991 after Conservative Party chairman Chris Patten recommended the show to the Prime Minister when Radio 1 sent an invitation to No.10. He was also regularly joined by Frankie Howerd in the last years of the comedian's life. In August 1993, he also took over a Sunday morning show from 10am-1pm, following the on-air resignation of Dave Lee Travis.
Campbell left the network briefly in October 1993 to care for his sick wife. In early 1994, he took over the weekday drivetime show from 4-7pm, and in 1995 he took over the afternoon show from 2-4pm. Campbell attracted a large audience, and when Radio 2 wanted a replacement for Jimmy Young, he revealed that he was the BBC's choice and detailed a series of meetings between himself and the controller of Radio 2. However, the BBC later claimed that Campbell had initiated the meetings himself, and his public revelations prompted the wrath of Greg Dyke.
Campbell presented the British version (produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network) of Wheel of Fortune from 1988 to 1996, and presented Top of the Pops regularly from 1988 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1997. In the 1990s Campbell fronted the regional discussion series Central Weekend on Central Television in the English Midlands and Carlton Live in London with Richard Littlejohn and then Andrew Neil.
Campbell left BBC Radio 1 in October 1997 and joined the news and sport network BBC Radio 5 Live, when offered the job by Roger Mosey the station's head. He presented the mid-morning programme on 5 Live for over 5 years before replacing Julian Worricker in the breakfast slot in January 2003, co-presenting initially with Victoria Derbyshire. From 2004 to 2011 he co-presented the programme with Shelagh Fogarty. In May 2011, Shelagh Fogarty left the breakfast show and was replaced by Rachel Burden. Campbell joins the programme an hour later than Burden and continues on his own for an hour at the end when the show becomes a topical events phone-in. He also presented BBC consumer show Watchdog and an interactive programme called Now You're Talking. Campbell has won seven Sony Awards, including a Gold Award in 2007 for the 5 Live Breakfast programme as Best News and Current Affairs Programme . In 2008 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
In 2006, Campbell appeared in the celebrity duet singing show Just the Two of Us, with Beverley Knight. Currently he fronts For the Rest of Your Life for Endemol, a daytime game show on ITV1 which began in May 2007. Campbell featured in the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? aired 11 July 2007 where he is seen tracing his adoptive family's roots in Scotland and Australia. He is Patron of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). He currently presents the Sunday morning programme The Big Questions on BBC One. He is also host of the BBC Two quiz show Battle of the Brains, replacing the previous host Paddy O'Connell.
In May 2009 it was revealed that Anne Robinson would replace Campbell and Julia Bradbury for the new series of Watchdog, which returned to the BBC on 10 September. Campbell is currently presenting Long Lost Family on ITV1 with Davina McCall.
Read more about this topic: Nicky Campbell
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