Neil Andrew Howe Fox (born 12 June 1961) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, known for many years as Dr Fox before he became "Foxy" in the 2000s, then simply as Neil Fox, M.D. before reemerging as "Dr Fox" in 2020 to host the UDJ "Heritage Chart" countdown.
He was a judge on ''
Pop Idol
''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...
'' between 2001 and 2003 alongside
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on t ...
,
Pete Waterman
Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterm ...
and
Nicki Chapman
Nicola Chapman, known professionally as Nicki Chapman (born 14 January 1967) is an English television & radio presenter, talent show judge and public relations agent who previously worked in the British pop music industry.
Chapman was a judg ...
.
Early life
Fox was born on 12 June 1961 in Harrow, Middlesex. As a boy he moved to
Thames Ditton
Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cross ...
, Surrey, where he lived for a number of years. He was then educated at
Kingston Grammar School
Kingston Grammar School is an independent co-educational day school in Kingston upon Thames, England. The school was founded by Royal Charter in 1561 but can trace its roots back to at least the 13th century. in London and joined the
Air Training Corps
The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including C ...
, before becoming a management student at the
University of Bath
(Virgil, Georgics II)
, mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind
, established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...
, where he joined the student radio station
University Radio Bath, and began his career as a radio presenter using the pseudonym Andrew Howe. After leaving university he worked as a binliner salesman.
He does not hold an ordinary PhD or medical degree, but does have an
honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
from the University of Bath in respect of his contributions to the media and charity.
Career
Radio
Radio Wyvern
In 1984 he started his professional radio career on what is now
Free Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire
Free Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire (formerly Radio Wyvern) is a local commercial radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
As of September 2022, the s ...
(then Radio Wyvern) in
Hereford
Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...
and
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
, starting off with a show called ''Mellow Yellow''. This was broadcast on Friday nights from 9.00 pm – 11.00pm and Saturday nights from 8.00 pm – 11.00 pm. In 1985, Fox took over the weekday evening show from 6.00 pm – 9.00 pm, before moving to their weekday afternoon show from 2.00 pm – 6.00 pm. He also presented a Saturday morning show for the station, which went out from 10.00 am – 1.00 pm. He remained there until late 1986, then joined
Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg).
The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...
in February 1987 before joining
Capital Radio
Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. I ...
in October the same year.
Capital Radio
Fox presented the station's evening show from 7.30 pm until 10.00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays (sharing weekday evenings with
Pat Sharp
Patrick Sharpin, known professionally as Pat Sharp (born 25 October 1961), is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's ITV programme ''Fun House'', and his extensive ...
), where some of his first shows were broadcast only on
medium wave
Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...
, because Capital were then broadcasting "adult" rock music on FM while mainstream chart music was played on MW. However, this soon ceased, the MW transmitters were given over to '
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
' station
Capital Gold
The Capital Gold radio station started in London in 1988 on Capital Radio's AM frequency, after the Independent Broadcasting Authority had urged stations to end simulcasting (broadcasting the same programmes simultaneously on AM and FM) and t ...
, and the FM service became
Capital FM. He also presented a Saturday morning show.
In the very early 1990s there was a short period during which Fox hosted a show starting at midnight on Saturday, specifically aimed at the club crowd. It was for this show that he adopted the moniker "Dr Fox", with the full title of the programme being "Dr Fox's Midnight Surgery". This was at the suggestion of Capital's Programme Director,
Richard Park. Many people called the show for requests. Fox was well known for having banter with callers and the "Surgery" was soon extended to his weekday evening shows.
Fox was establishing himself as one of Capital FM's most popular DJs and in 1993 he began presenting the Sunday afternoon Network Chart Show, which owing to sponsorship went on to be called the
Pepsi Network Chart
The Pepsi Chart (previously known as "The Pepsi Network Chart Show") was a networked Sunday afternoon Top 40 countdown on UK radio that started life on 1 August 1993 with Neil 'Doctor' Fox hosting the show live from the Capital Radio studios ...
before becoming simply the
Pepsi Chart
The Pepsi Chart (previously known as "The Pepsi Network Chart Show") was a networked Sunday afternoon Top 40 countdown on UK radio that started life on 1 August 1993 with Neil 'Doctor' Fox hosting the show live from the Capital Radio studios ...
in 1996 and then
hit40uk, sponsored by
Woolworths in 2003. During Fox's tenure this show, which had previously been hosted by
David Jensen
David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...
, overtook the official Top 40 show on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
(broadcast at exactly the same time). In addition to this, he still continued with his evening show, although from 1995 he went out on Sundays to Thursdays. On Sundays his show was from 7.00 pm to 8.30 pm as he presented the Chart show beforehand. In 1997 it was rumoured that
Matthew Bannister
Richard Matthew Bannister (born 16 March 1957) is a British media executive and broadcaster.
Early career
After attending King Edward VII School, Sheffield, he graduated in law at the University of Nottingham in 1978, and joined BBC Radio Not ...
offered Fox the breakfast show on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
, following the departure of
Chris Evans from the station. In late 1998 he took over Capital's 4.00 pm – 7.00 pm drivetime show from
David Jensen
David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...
which was later extended to 8.00 pm.
Fox also presented a show on
Channel 5 from 1998 until 2002, and he was famously a judge on
Pop Idol
''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...
, as well as presenting various other
ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...
shows. On Capital FM he moved from the weekday evening show to the
drivetime show in 1998, again succeeding
David Jensen
David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...
. He deputised for
Chris Tarrant
Christopher John Tarrant, (born 10 October 1946) is an English broadcaster, television personality and former radio DJ. He presented the ITV (TV network), ITV children's television show ''Tiswas'' from 1974 to 1981, and the game show ''Who Wa ...
on the station's breakfast show on many occasions, especially after Tarrant changed to part-time work in 2003, but was passed over in favour of
Johnny Vaughan
Jonathan Randal Vaughan (born 16 July 1966) is an English television and radio presenter and a film critic. He was the main presenter of ''Capital Breakfast'' alongside Lisa Snowdon on 95.8 Capital FM between 2004 and 2011.
Vaughan currently pr ...
as Tarrant's successor.
Fox said that he wanted to leave Capital when he did not get the breakfast show, but he initially changed his mind and remained for a while longer. On 30 May 2004 he presented his last hit40uk after 11 years, but remained on Capital FM until the spring of 2005 when he left the station after 18 years, his drivetime show being taken over by
Richard Bacon.
Magic 105.4
From 12 September 2005 he was the presenter of the "''More Music Breakfast Show''" on
Magic 105.4
Magic Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer. The station is available on 105.4 FM in London and across the UK on Digital Radio, on the Magic Radio app, television and online.
It had previously been a part of a ...
FM in London, and on DAB, Freeview and Satellite across the UK. His last show was on 30 September 2014, after which he was arrested on the studio's premises. Although ultimately acquitted in December 2015, Fox's contract expired in January 2016 and he did not return to Magic.
Since 2016
On 26 June 2016, six months after his acquittal, it was announced Fox would join the new London radio station
Thames Radio, where he presented the Saturday morning show. He would later take on the station's Breakfast show. However the venture was short lived, when the station opted for non-stop music in July 2017. On 17 July 2020 it was announced Fox would join the internet radio station United DJs, presenting the "''Heritage Chart Run Down''" on Sunday evenings. In November 2020, Fox alongside
Mike Read
Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter. Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for musi ...
left United DJs in order to launch
Nation Radio UK
Nation Radio UK is a quasi-national radio station in the UK, broadcasting online and on DAB. It is owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting.
The digital station was launched in June 2016 as Thames Radio with a line-up of former BBC and Capital ...
. Between January and April, Fox hosted ''Drivetime'' and ''The Heritage Chart'', respectively on Nation UK. He took over the Breakfast show in April 2021, following the departure of Read.
Awards
Fox holds ten Sony awards and was awarded the Gold award for lifetime achievement in 2009, as well as winning the "Best Disc Jockey" award at the
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
The Smash Hits Poll Winners Party was a British awards ceremony which ran from 1979 (as the Smash Hits Readers' Poll) to 2005. Each award winner was voted by readers of the '' Smash Hits'' magazine. It ended with the closure of the magazine in F ...
multiple times.
Television
On 12 October 2008 Fox joined his fellow ex-''
Pop Idol
''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...
'' judges
Pete Waterman
Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterm ...
and
Nicki Chapman
Nicola Chapman, known professionally as Nicki Chapman (born 14 January 1967) is an English television & radio presenter, talent show judge and public relations agent who previously worked in the British pop music industry.
Chapman was a judg ...
on ''
Peter Kay's Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice'', a spoof on the talent show genre of programmes.
Fox appeared on the satirical show ''
Brass Eye
''Brass Eye'' is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, writte ...
'' controversial
2001 Paedophilia Special, where he claimed that "Genetically, paedophiles have more genes in common with crabs than they do with you and me. Now that is scientific fact... there's no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact."
Other television work and appearances include ''Doctor Fox's Video Jukebox'' on LWT, ''Ice Warriors'' (voiceover) and ''The Big Call'' (host) on ITV, and Not the Jack Docherty Show (host) on Channel 5.
He appeared on ''
Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs'', where he received his puppy Bonzo.
On 2 April 2014 Fox appeared on an episode of ''
Big Star's Little Star
''Big Star's Little Star'' is a British game show that began on ITV on 4 September 2013 and is presented by Stephen Mulhern. The show sees three celebrity contestants and their children or grandchildren answering questions about each other to wi ...
'' with his daughter Martha.
In January 2021 Neil began hosting the weekday Drivetime show 4-7pm, well as The Heritage Chart on Sundays 5-7pm on London’s DAB station,
nation radio
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
In December 2022, he covered some of the Christmas-period shows on
GB News
GB News is a British free-to-air television and radio news channel. The channel is available on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, YouView, Virgin Media and via the internet. Since 4 January 2022, an audio simulcast of the station is available on DAB+ ra ...
for
Mark Dolan
Mark Dolan (born 17 March 1974) is an English comedian, writer, and presenter. He currently hosts ''Mark Dolan Tonight'' on GB News. He was the host of '' Balls of Steel'' from 2005 until 2008 on Channel 4.
Early life
Dolan attended University ...
.
Personal life
Views
In August 2014 Fox was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' opposing
Scottish independence
Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about.
S ...
in the run-up to September's
referendum on that issue.
Arrest and trial
Fox was arrested on 30 September 2014 at Magic FM headquarters in London by police investigating claims of historical sex offences. The arrest came after separate allegations were made by two women. His arrest was not part of the high-profile sex crime investigation
Operation Yewtree
Operation Yewtree was a British police investigation into sexual abuse allegations, predominantly the abuse of children, against the English media personality Jimmy Savile and others. The investigation, led by the Metropolitan Police Service ( ...
, which was set up in the
wake of revelations about BBC presenter
Jimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Jim'll Fix It''. During his lifetime, he was well known ...
. Fox's homes in Fulham and Littlehampton, West Sussex, were searched. He was subsequently released on bail until December 2014, when he was re-arrested in relation to three other alleged incidents; he was again bailed until March 2015. On 13 March he was arrested for an alleged sexual offence against a woman in the early 1990s. He remained on bail until late March, when he was then charged with nine sex offences against six people, of whom three were under the age of 16. The offences allegedly occurred between 1991 and 2014.
He entered pleas of not guilty at
Westminster Magistrates' Court
Westminster Magistrates' Court is a magistrates' court at 181 Marylebone Road, London. The Chief Magistrate of England and Wales, who is the Senior District Judge of England and Wales, sits at the court, and all extradition and terrorism-rela ...
on 16 April 2015.
He pleaded not guilty to six additional charges from 1987 and 1988 involving three girls under the age of 16 on 2 October.
His trial began on 5 November 2015. Prosecutors cleared him of five charges before the start of the trial. The
bench trial
A bench trial is a trial by judge, as opposed to a trial by jury. The term applies most appropriately to any administrative hearing in relation to a summary offense to distinguish the type of trial. Many legal systems (Roman, Islamic) use bench ...
took place at Westminster Magistrates' Court. He was found not guilty on all charges on 14 December.
Fox's trial was the first high-profile sexual abuse case to be decided by magistrates, rather than a jury, since the Savile scandal.
In the summary Judge Howard Riddle stated: "We heard evidence of about 10 allegations from six women. We believed each of the complainants. The question we must ask is whether we are sure of the facts alleged, sure of the context in which they occurred and sure that they amount to criminal offences."
Judge Riddle spoke of the difficulty in dealing with the historic cases, stating they were not sure if the incidents occurred as described or if they amounted to criminal offences, and was not sure if the most recent allegation was a criminal offence.
In a statement to the media following his acquittal, Fox stated: "This case has once again raised concerns about how high-profile cases such as this have been investigated by the
CPS".
He then thanked supporters and expressed his interest in returning to broadcasting.
Discography
* ''Mix'o'matic'' (1996)
The album ''Mix'o'matic'' is a remix album, containing 50 songs over two discs mixed together by Fox.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Neil
1961 births
Living people
People from Harrow, London
English television presenters
English radio DJs
Alumni of the University of Bath
People acquitted of sex crimes
People educated at Kingston Grammar School
Capital (radio network)