Ray Cokes (born Raymond Christopher Cokes on 24 February 1958) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a " television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garne ...

Career

Early life

Ray's father was an officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

, who was stationed at various navy bases around the world. When Ray was 15 the family permanently resettled back to

Britain 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 ...

. At age 20, Ray moved to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, where he took on various jobs, including DJ on a local radio station. This led to a job as a music presenter on Belgian national TV channel

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Comm ...

, where he presented the show ''Rox Box'' in 1982. With growing reputation, more music video shows followed on Sky Channel and

Music Box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'' ...

. When

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serv ...

launched in 1987 he became a video jockey mainly co-presenting alongside Marcel Vanthilt.

''MTV's Most Wanted''

Between 1992 and 1995, Cokes hosted MTV Europe's live television series ''

MTV's Most Wanted ''MTV's Most Wanted'' is a television series on MTV Europe which was broadcast from 1992 to 1995, based in London, England. It was presented by Ray Cokes. The series was broadcast live from MTV Studios in Camden and featured blends of viewer in ...

'', an award-winning daily show which soon became the most popular on channel with its zoo TV format. The studio crew were as big as the celebrities who appeared on the show, including Rob & Andy the cameramen, Floor manager Nina and pathetic Pat. Each night (Tuesday to Friday) musical stars performed live as well as competitions and on-air phone calls to viewers. The team wanted to end the show at its peak, with the last six months with Will MacDonald as producer, who was associated with Ginger Chris Evans on many of his TV projects. The last musical act were

The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...

who let Cokes play with them on their final song. Other guests that night included Bjork and

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended ...

from U2. After a 2 month sabbatical, MTV decided to spend money on a big once-a-week spectacular called ''X Ray Vision''. Instead of coming from the studio, it used the 1st floor of the MTV building at Camden Lock. After several weeks the show went on location to Hamburg. It was billed to feature punk band Die Toten Hosen playing live on screen. A local journalist, however, wrote that the band would be there in person. A large number of their fans turned up and were disappointed to discover their absence. They vented their anger by throwing glass bottles and beer at a confused Cokes and camera crew, who were unaware of what had been written in the press. For the safety of his crew, Cokes decided to end the show early. MTV used him as a scapegoat and a week later the show went out for a final time, bringing Cokes' time at MTV to an end, after nine years. Not long after,

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

Europe broke up into localized versions, and in 1994, Cokes released a single titled "Simply Sexy!" under the name Ray Cokes & the Sex Gods featuring Al Agami, the song's title referring to one of the

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

s frequently used in ''Most Wanted''.

After MTV

While working with Will MacDonald on ''

'' Cokes met Chris Evans, who brought him to the original Virgin 1215 in the UK. The show went out weekday evenings in a similar time slot to his old TV show. Cokes also presented series 2 of

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

's hit 90s TV show ''

Wanted Wanted may refer to: Law enforcement * Fugitive, a person wanted by the authorities * Wanted poster, a poster put up to inform the public of one or more criminals whom authorities wish to apprehend Film * ''Wanted!'', a 1937 British comedy film ...

''. His subsequent work includes presenting ''En Direct de'' from 2005 to 2009, broadcast on the French television station France 4. Cokes also worked as the compère for the White Concert, a live concert recorded in Horsens,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, in November 2008 due to the 40-year jubilee of the

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

' eponymous '' White Album''. In late 2008 he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and in 2009 to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, declaring that he would like to permanently settle there. During the summer of 2009, Cokes and Jean Blaute co-hosted ''Tournée Générale'', a 10-part exploration of Belgian beer around the world from Sputnik Media, on

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

channel

Canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbag ...

. A second 10-part series was aired in 2011 and a third in 2013 on the Belgian channel Eén. In September 2011, Cokes hosted the Sunday afternoon show ''Cokes calling'' on

Classic 21 Classic 21 is a Belgian public FM radio station, part of the RTBF broadcasting organisation. The station, based in Mons, was the only Classic rock radio in Belgium until 2008 when they switched to adult-contemporary and pop. The station plays pred ...

, one of the radio stations of the Belgian RTBF. From 2012 to 2014, he was one of the three judges in the first ''Belgium's Got Talent''. In February 2014, he hosted the Swedish Grammy awards. In October 2014, he released his autobiography, ''My Most Wanted Life - On-Screen, Off-Screen and In-Between'', available in German and English editions. Cokes has been put into ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before b ...

'' as a splash text reading: "Bring me Ray Cokes" because Notch, the game's developer, used to watch Cokes when he was a kid.reddit.com
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cokes whilst living in Spain hosted an Instagram live show several nights a week.

References

External links

Official website
*
tourneegenerale.canvas.bestandaard.be
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cokes, Ray 1958 births Living people British VJs (media personalities) English television presenters