Allan Beswick (born 8 October 1948 in

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

) is a radio broadcaster who presents the late night phone-in on

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford ...

and

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Darwen Street in Blackburn. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly aud ...

. Before starting his late-night phone show, Beswick presented the breakfast show on BBC Radio Manchester.

Career

Prior to becoming a radio presenter, Beswick worked as a soldier, a bus driver, a driving instructor and a

mental health nurse A Mental Health Nurse (MHN) refers to a ''psychiatric nurse'' in the UK, who specialises in the care of patients with mental health issues. Background MHNs comprise approximately 12% of the total NHS Nursing workforce. In order to qualify as a MH ...

and for the

Citizen's Advice Bureau Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this nation ...

; during his time at the C.A.B. he began to appear as a guest on ''Dave Lincoln and Friends'', a programme on Radio City 194m MW (1548 kHz) and 96.7 MHz VHF / FM, an independent commercial station in Liverpool. In the early to late eighties, he worked for

station

Red Rose Radio Red Rose Radio was the first UK Independent Local Radio station to be licensed for Lancashire by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). Although a company of that name was incorporated in 1978 (as Red Rose Radio Limited), the licence was awa ...

97.3 MHz later 97.4 MHz FM and 301m MW (999 kHz) where he initially presented an afternoon show which won him a Sony national radio award. He then presented a late-night phone-in ''The Allan Beswick Late Night Show''. which drew listeners and controversy in nearly equal measure. His listening figures for this late night slot often drew audiences equal to those of many radio stations breakfast shows. The overall 'audience reach' of the programme drew in the region of 100,000 listeners per night, but a total listenership across the North West, West Yorkshire and North Wales often approached 500,000 listeners. He was well known for his straight-talking, uncompromising style, ability to argue his case stubbornly, often playing devil's advocate and he had a penchant for insulting callers with whom he disagreed or did not like. He was also known for his on-air professed dislike of

Liverpudlian Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

s ("

scouser Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

s"), which perversely made him popular with Liverpool listeners, as they felt he typified woollybacks – people from outside the city – and all that was wrong with them. He has since said it was an act and he has no problem with Merseysiders. Other groups to incur his ire were train spotters and freemasons. Callers were met usually with the introduction of 'How do'. The show ran from 10pm to 1am Monday to Thursday with the first hour usually having music content, which turned virtually exclusively to talk after the 11 pm news. The show 'or programme' as he referred to it, drew comparisons with similar northern based late night phone in shows with

James Whale James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: ''Fran ...

at Red Rose Radio's sister station

Radio Aire Radio Aire was an Independent Local Radio station, serving Leeds and West Yorkshire. The station was merged and relaunched as Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020. History Radio Aire was launched at 6am ...

in Leeds, James H Reeve and

James Stannage James Stannage (born 22 February 1950)James Stannage
– Manchester Radio Online is an

Piccadilly Radio Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester and North West Eng ...

in Manchester on 261m MW (1152 kHz) and 97.0 MHz FM later Key 103 on 103.0 MHz FM. During the Red Rose era Allan released, in limited quantities, 2 'Best of' cassettes and one 7" single record. 'Beswick's Big Blue Cassette', which featured some of the funniest callers to the programme on Telephone number on Preston (STD Code : 0772) 561000 - which later changed to (01772) 561000. During his time at Red Rose Radio, Beswick also hosted a Sunday morning call in game show called 'It's Your Turn.' His assistant was credited as Wobbly Warren. Allan occasionally took his show to live venues throughout the Red Rose area, mainly in Lancashire and on Merseyside. He recorded ''Jehovah's Witness at the Door'' for the double CD 'Guide Cats for the Blind' (songs and poems of

Les Barker Les Barker (30 January 1947 – 14 January 2023) was an English poet, who was famous for his comedy, comedic poetry and parody, parodies of popular songs, but he also produced some very serious thought-provoking written works. Work Barker ...

) in 2008. An on-air incident led to his being banned for a period by the

Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Authorit ...

for being abusive to a caller. Red Rose held a ballot to see if he should be re-instated, which he subsequently was. This second coming lasted about a year. He soon moved to BBC Radio Manchester where he presented a lunchtime show, the morning show and later the breakfast show, moving back to his familiar late night spot in early 2015. In April 2007 a humorous comment Beswick made about the death of Alan Ball on a lunchtime broadcast drew complaints, resulting in an apology both from the BBC and Beswick himself. Beswick has also worked on BBC Radio 5 live, presenting late night sporadically in the early part of the last decade, and on television, including a slot as presenter of "Beswick's Beat", a local current affairs segment on ''

North West Tonight ''BBC North West Tonight'' is the BBC's regional television news programme covering North West England and the Isle of Man. Produced by BBC North West, the programme airs at 1.30pm (as ''North West Today''), 6.30pm and 10.30pm, with shorter b ...

''. On 2 February 2015, Allan took over the networked late show on both BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Lancashire. The show, which is produced from Media City and broadcasts from Allan's home in

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

, is mainly a phone-in with one or two music tracks at the beginning of the first hour. In May 2021, it was announced that Beswick's late show would be moving to weekends only. In addition to BBC stations Radio Lancashire and Manchester, the new show also airs on Radio Merseyside.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beswick, Allan British radio personalities English socialists English agnostics Living people 1948 births