Richard Littlejohn: Encyclopedia II - Richard Littlejohn - Career

Richard Littlejohn - Career

Although primarily a newspaper journalist, Littlejohn has presented numerous radio and TV shows, and has authored or co-authored several books.

Richard Littlejohn - Journalism

Littlejohn left school in 1971 aged 16, and started work as a trainee journalist in his home town of Peterborough; he worked for several local newspapers during the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Birmingham Evening Express, becoming its industrial editor in 1977.

He worked at the London Evening Standard from 1979 to 1989, initially as industrial editor, later becoming a feature writer and (in 1988) a columnist. In 1989 he joined The Sun, quickly becoming its most popular columnist. His columns regularly attracted controversy, and he was voted "Irritant of the Year" at the 1993 What The Papers Say Awards.

In 1994, he left The Sun and started writing for the Daily Mail, contributing two opinion columns: one on news and current affairs (in a similar format to his Sun column), and one on sport. His Mail columns earned him the title "Columnist of the Year" at the 1997 British Press Awards.

Later in 1997, Littlejohn became the UK's best-paid columnist when he returned to The Sun to write a twice-weekly column as part of a £800,000-a-year deal (which also saw him present a regular TV programme, Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed, on Sky One). It was subsequently cancelled due to poor ratings.

In May 2005, however, he re-joined the Mail, a move he claimed was "always his intention". When news of the move broke, Mail editor Paul Dacre issued a statement praising Littlejohn, adding that he was "thrilled" that Littlejohn was "returning to his spiritual home". Littlejohn reportedly earns an annual salary of between £700,000 and £800,000, making him the Mail's highest-paid journalist.

In addition to his regular columns, Littlejohn has occasionally contributed articles to magazines such as The Spectator and Punch.

One of Littlejohn's Sun columns - a 2004 skit, entitled "Rum, Sodomy and the Lifejacket", in which Lord Nelson is confronted with political correctness, compensation culture and the nanny state - has been widely plagiarised. It has been published in several newspapers, magazines, and websites with Littlejohn's writing credit removed.

Richard Littlejohn - Radio

By the end of the 1980s, Littlejohn was well known in London for his Evening Standard columns, and he was regularly invited onto radio programmes as a pundit. Starting in 1991, he worked for the London radio station LBC as a guest presenter, standing in for Michael Parkinson on the morning show and for Mike Dickin on the afternoon phone-in programme.

LBC gave Littlejohn his own early afternoon show, Littlejohn's Long Lunch, in August 1992; the programme was a talk show featuring topical discussion, listener phone-ins, and celebrity guests. He later became the permanent presenter of the morning show, replacing Michael Parkinson. Littlejohn's programmes were frequently controversial, and his outspoken views attracted censure from the Radio Authority on a number of occasions. LBC was also reprimanded by the Radio Authority over some of the language and subject matter in the show (particularly sexual topics), which were judged to be inappropriate for a daytime audience.

In 1995, Littlejohn joined BBC Radio Five Live as a guest presenter on 6-0-6, a football phone-in show. He presented a number of sports programmes on the station, and in 1997 he became the permanent presenter of 6-0-6, a position he held for five years. In 2000, he won a Sony Radio Award for his work on the programme.

Richard Littlejohn - Television

After leaving LBC in 1994, Littlejohn was approached by BSkyB managing director (and former Sun editor) Kelvin MacKenzie, and was offered the chance to present a nightly current affairs show on the TV channel Sky News. Called Richard Littlejohn, the show ran for one year and was not a huge success. Littlejohn later expressed his disappointment, claiming that British broadcasting regulations would not permit him to present the show in the style of Rush Limbaugh's programmes: "If Sky News could emulate its US sister Fox News... ratings would soon shoot past the Astra satellite. But the regulators won’t allow it."

Later in 1994, Trevor Phillips of London Weekend Television hired Littlejohn to host a studio-based talk show entitled Richard Littlejohn Live And Uncut. Phillips produced three series of the programme, which was transmitted in the London area only.

Littlejohn also hosted the first series of Channel 4's game show Wanted, though he was not the producers' first choice of presenter (he was a last minute stand-in for Bob Mills). Wanted first aired in October 1996, and won a Silver Rose at the prestigious Festival Rose d'Or.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Littlejohn presented several shows for Carlton Television, including Sport In Question, Thursday Night Live, Do I Not Like That, and Forking Out For The Scots. Additionally, he has regularly appeared as a panellist and pundit on programmes such as the BBC's Question Time and Have I Got News For You.

As part of a 1997 deal which also saw him return to the Sun newspaper, Littlejohn briefly hosted a late night talk show on Sky One called Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed. It was first broadcast on 21 April 1998.

In early 2003 he returned to Sky News to present Littlejohn, a live topical talk show which was initially broadcast twice-weekly, but was later extended to four nights per week. The programme ended on 8 July 2004 when Sky News changed its format, replacing the show with regular rolling news. Littlejohn has stated that he has "not ruled out" the possibility of returning to Sky News in the future.

Richard Littlejohn - Books

Littlejohn has authored or co-authored several books:

• The Essex Girl Joke Book (as Ray Leigh, with Brent Wood, 1991, Corgi Publishing) - a collection of Essex girl jokes, co-written (with "Brent Wood") under the pseudonym "Ray Leigh".

• You Couldn't Make It Up (1995, Heinemann, ISBN 0434002380) - named after one of Littlejohn's catchphrases, and described on the jacket as "a brilliant collection of liberal-skewering wit and wisdom", this is a book of recollections and opinion pieces on subjects such as political correctness, politicians, corporate "fat cats", the European Union, and the British Royal Family.

• To Hell In A Handcart (2001, HarperCollins, ISBN 0007106130) - named after another of his catchphrases, this is Littlejohn's first and only novel, based loosely on the Tony Martin case. The book was lambasted by liberal critics for its portrayal of asylum seekers, notably by The Independent's David Aaronovitch who described it as "a 400-page recruiting pamphlet for the BNP". However, it received positive reviews from conservative writers such as Frederick Forsyth and Andrew Roberts.

• The Book Of Useless Information (with Keith Waterhouse, 2002, Blake Publishing, ISBN 1903402794) - co-written with Keith Waterhouse, this "stocking filler" book is a collection of "useless" facts, described on the cover as "all you never needed to know and didn't need to ask."

• The Ultimate Book Of Useless Information (with Keith Waterhouse, 2004, Blake Publishing, ISBN 184454060X) - another volume of "useless" facts.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki