Richard Spendlove

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 16 June 1939) is a retired

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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/producer

television writer A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Life and work

Spendlove was born in

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

. He worked for

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

for 35 years, and in 1963 was appointed Relief

Station Master The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...

Ely Ely or ELY may refer to: Places Ireland * Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely * Ely Place, Dublin, a street United Kingdom * Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England ** Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formal ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

. He retired from the railways in 1989 at the age of 50, to pursue a career in broadcasting. With David Croft he wrote and created a BBC TV

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

series, ''

Oh, Doctor Beeching! ''Oh, Doctor Beeching!'' is a BBC television sitcom written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove which, after a broadcast pilot on 14 August 1995, ran for two series from 8 July 1996, with the last episode being broadcast on 28 September 1997. ...

'', which ran on

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 ...

between 1995 and 1997 The series ran for two series,The series was axed due to unsatisfactory viewing figures and due to this has never been re-shown in the UK as of 2022, but has been released on DVD From 1989 until 2017, Spendlove worked for

BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of forty stations. History The popularity of pirate radio was to challenge a change within ...

as the host of his long-running Saturday night music and phone-in show, which was simulcast from

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire BBC Radio Cambridgeshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cambridgeshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at the Cambridge Business Park on Cowley Road in Cambridge. According to ...

and also broadcast on the Eastern Counties radio stations, Radio Norfolk, Radio Suffolk,

Radio Essex Radio Essex is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Essex, England via DAB and Mid and South Essex via FM, from studios in The Icon Building on Southend seafront, owned by the Adventure Radio Group. As of September 2022, the st ...

BBC Three Counties Radio BBC Three Counties Radio is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via ...

, Radio Northampton and

Radio Kent BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Great Hall in Tunbridge Wells. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience o ...

. In January 1994, an

Early day motion In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a Motion (parliamentary procedure), motion, expressed as a single sentence, Table (parliamentary procedure), tabled by Member of Parliament, members of Parliament that formally ...

tabled in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

after a break in its broadcasting received a total of fifteen signatures. It was believed to be the longest running phone-in chat show on British Radio. He also presented in the afternoons on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire until 16 June 2017, his 78th birthday. Since then, the Saturday night show format has returned on and off. From 4 December 2017 to 25 March 2018, Spendlove returned to broadcast the show on

Mildenhall, Suffolk Mildenhall is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. The town is near the A11 and is located north-west of Ipswich, the county town.Ordnance Survey (2006). ''OS Explorer Map 226 - Ely & Newmarket''. . The large Royal Air Force stati ...

based community station Zack FM, on Monday nights and later Sunday nights. From late 2018 to May 2020, the show was broadcast live, on and off, on selected Saturday and later Sunday evenings online, and had a dedicated Facebook page. Spendlove was awarded the MBE for "Services to Regional and Local Radio Broadcasting" in 2000. In 2016, the BBC was critical of his use of his show to gain support for a convicted

Royal Marine The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

murderer. Spendlove now lives in

Harston Harston is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, located around 5 miles (8 km) south of Cambridge. In 2011, it had a population of 1,740. Village Sign The village sign was erected in the Queen's Silver Jubilee yea ...

. He and his wife Betty, who sat opposite him in the studio during his Saturday night show's entire run on the BBC, married in November 1960. She died in August 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spendlove, Richard 1939 births BBC radio presenters British radio presenters British Rail people British television writers Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Carlton, Nottinghamshire