Alexander John Riley (born 29 March 1968 in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

) is an English TV and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

presenter A presenter is a person or organization responsible for the running of a public event, or someone who conveys information on media via a broadcasting outlet. Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a new ...

Early life and education

Born and brought up in Sheffield, Riley started performing with the city's Crucible Youth Theatre, during which time he originated, and appeared in, sketches and devised pieces, as well as appearing in a number of plays and farces at the Library Theatre.

Career

Riley had a succession of jobs, including spells managing a shopping centre and selling aerial photographs, before successfully answering an on-air appeal for researchers on

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

programme. A lifelong car enthusiast, Riley was in his element writing scripts for racing driver turned presenter

Vicki Butler-Henderson Victoria Jemma Butler-Henderson (born 16 February 1972) is a British racing driver, former presenter of ''Top Gear'' and current presenter of ''Fifth Gear''. Biography Butler-Henderson was born into a racing family. Her grandfather used to race ...

and making many ''cameo'' appearances before being given the chance to present his own items. Amongst these were a 9-hour

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance journey on the road. Typically, road trips are long distances travelled by automobile. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by t ...

from London to Brighton on the world's oldest vehicle, a challenge to build a car in 16 hours from junk bought at Europe's largest auto

jumble sale A jumble sale (UK), bring and buy sale (Australia) or rummage sale (U.S and Canada) is an event at which second hand goods are sold, usually by an institution such as a local Boys' Brigade Company, Scout group, Girlguiding group or church, ...

and appearing as

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

at the UK's premier American lifestyle festival. He went on to write and perform sketches for

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

specials on the

Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...

and

Britain in Bloom Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, appear as a bed-hopping bigamist in a prime time BBC One documentary ''Bigamy'' and write and present Short Circuits, an innovative 10-part series for Discovery Home and Leisure which combined

Scalextric Scalextric is a brand of slot car racing sets which first appeared in the late 1950s. The Scalextric were first invented by engineer B. Fred Francis, when he added an electric motor to the ''Scalex'' tin cars that were produced by Minimodels Lt ...

with tips on making realistic scenery out of chicken wire. Moving sideways to

, he was chosen as the voice of ''The Comedy Club'', a nightly 2-hour comedy strand which played a significant part in

BBC7 BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the pr ...

achieving the Sony Gold Award for ''Station Sound''. Returning to TV, Riley has presented two series of ''Boys Toys'', a series for ITV1 West Country, the ''Caravan Show'' for

Discovery Real Time Discovery Real Time was a British television channel owned by Discovery Networks UK focused on educational and learning content. History It was originally launched on 9 March 1992 as The Learning Channel, United Kingdom's version of the Ameri ...

, a tongue-in-cheek active sports series ''You Know You Want To'' (again for ITV1 Westcountry) and, after buying a

Triumph TR7 The Triumph TR7 is a sports car manufactured in the United Kingdom from September 1974 to October 1981 by British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which changed its name to British Leyland (BL) in 1975. The car was launched in the United State ...

, ''Classic Car Club'', for Discovery Real Time. He has also been a "traveller" for

Globe Trekker ''Globe Trekker'' (sometimes called ''Pilot Guides'' in Australia and Thailand, and originally broadcast as ''Lonely Planet'') was a British adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The British series was inspired b ...

. For

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

's ''Mischief'' series Riley has also presented documentaries which made use of dramatic stunts to confront those responsible for problems on the UK's public transport network and for the fact that thousands of homes across the country lie empty at a time when housing is in short supply. For a 2008 ''Mischief'' documentary on food titled ''Britain's Really Disgusting Foods'', Riley attempted to create his own "Mr Riley's" meat pie using the minimum requirements set by the

Food Standards Agency , type = Non-ministerial government department , nativename = , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Food Standards Agency.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , ...

. When shown on

, it got 2.6 million viewers, prompting the creation of a series of 3 documentaries titled ''Britain's Really Disgusting Food'', aired in January 2009. His new show aired in 2010 called ''Britain's Really Disgusting Drink''. From 2015, Riley has appeared 6 times on the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

panel show ''

The Dog Ate My Homework "The dog ate my homework" (or "My dog ate my homework") is an English expression which carries the suggestion of being a common, poorly fabricated excuse made by schoolchildren to explain their failure to turn in an assignment on time. The phras ...

''. Riley also hosts ''

All Over the Workplace ''All Over the Workplace'' is a British children's factual television series is a spin off of '' All Over the Place'' hosted by Alex Riley and narrated by Ed Petrie (who is the host of '' All Over the Place''). The show is produced by CBBC Pr ...

'' for CBBC.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Alex 1968 births Living people Male actors from Sheffield English male comedians English television presenters Comedians from Yorkshire