Garry Richardson

Career

Garry Richardson began his broadcasting career with BBC Radio Oxford. He had previously been a youth player at Reading and Southampton football clubs but quickly realised that he was unlikely to become a professional footballer.

He gave his first sports report on national radio in 1981 as a 'cub' reporter, introduced by Today's co-presenter Brian Redhead for the match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United. Under the tutorship of Tony Adamson, Bryon Butler and the commentator Peter Jones, Richardson rose to become the regular sports reporter on the show, a role he has assumed for over 20 years.

Richardson also presents the Sunday morning sports programme Sportsweek on BBC Radio 5 Live BBC podcasts. He is known for presenting the show with a slightly aggressive and direct interview style, with the hope of gaining valuable information from his guests. He has stated that he believes in asking the same question three times if he has not received a response, a style also favoured by fellow journalists Jeremy Paxman and John Humphrys. He does, however, gain interviews from a wide range of sources (football) and regularly has guests from the national press as his co-host/soundboard.

The show won a Sony Gold Award in 2007 for Best Sports Programme. The show was nominated in the same category in the 2009 awards but lost out to 5 Live's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics (Olympic Breakfast (gold) and Olympic Sportsworld (bronze)) and also The Football Forum (silver).

He began presenting a sports sketch and interview show, Look Away Now, for BBC Radio 4 in 2007 spoofing his own style.

In March 2017, Richardson, ended a Today interview with cricketer James Anderson by saying that "[Anderson] was speaking to us in conjunction with Brut aftershave, who he is an ambassador for,” which prompted the BBC to apologise for its promotion of the product against editorial guidelines.

Famous interviews

Richardson has interviewed a variety of personalities from the world of sport and politics. In 2002 he irritated tennis player Anna Kournikova, who requested the interview be restarted when he cast aspersions on her ability to play at Wimbledon. He has also conducted interviews with former South African president Nelson Mandela and Hansie Cronje, the South African cricket captain.

During a rain delay at Wimbledon, Richardson got a note through to President of the United States Bill Clinton and persuaded him to give an impromptu interview in the Royal Box, with a crowd of 18,000 watching.

Public speaking

Richardson is also a public or after-dinner speaker, an activity he has performed for 23 years. He regularly introduces anecdotes into his speech from interviews that he has conducted.

Personal life

Richardson is a supporter of Oxford United FC. from his previous reporting days on BBC Radio Oxford

Richardson can regularly be seen in the stands of local side Woking FC.

Programmes