Thomas Cowan (born 21 April 1969) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and radio presenter who was previously also a

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 ...

Early life

He was educated at Braidhurst High School in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

where he was one of the school captains.

Career

Cowan presented Scottish football comedy TV show '' Offside''. He has also taken to live stand-up comedy by taking "Offside" to the stage in 2002. The show was recorded live at the King's Theatre in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

for DVD. In February 2010, Cowan presented '' It's Never Too Late'', a six-part documentary series for STV on literacy and numeracy difficulties among adults. Cowan was also a guest presenter for STV's overnight interactive strand '' The Nightshift'' and rejoined the station on 20 September 2011 as a main co-presenter for the lifestyle magazine show '' The Hour'', alongside Michelle McManus. The programme was axed four weeks after a move to a weekly prime time slot and a revamp of the programme led to low ratings. For 16 years, Cowan was a restaurant critic and reviewer, and additional columnist, with the '' Daily Record'' newspaper. He moved to their rival newspaper, ''

The Scottish Sun ''The Sun'' is a British tabloid newspaper, published by the News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. It was founded as a broadsheet in 1964 as a successor to the '' Daily Her ...

'', in March 2014. Cowan presents the comedy football radio show '' Off the Ball'' on

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...

, along with ''Daily Record'' and ''Sunday National'' journalist and good friend

Stuart Cosgrove Stuart John Francis Cosgrove (born 12 November 1952) is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster and television executive. As a journalist Cosgrove served on the ''NME'' (Media Editor) and ''The Face'' during the 1980s, before joining Channel 4 in 199 ...

. Cowan was temporarily dropped from ''Off the Ball'' in 2013 for

sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...

remarks made about women's football in his ''Daily Record'' column.

Personal life

Cowan is a well known fan of Motherwell F.C. He and his wife, Liz, have a daughter.

Filmography

;Television ;Radio

References

External links

Tam Cowan
at The Daily Record * 1969 births Living people People from Motherwell People educated at Braidhurst High School Scottish radio personalities Scottish television presenters Scottish sportswriters Scottish columnists Scottish women columnists British women television presenters Scottish women writers British restaurant critics {{Scotland-bio-stub