Country United Kingdom | Running time Nightly 1-5am Language(s) English | |
Starring Rhod Sharp (Monday - Wednesday)Dotun Adebayo (Thursday - Sunday) | ||
Up All Night is a programme broadcast on the national radio station BBC Radio 5 Live in the United Kingdom, and is on air between the hours of 01:00 and 05:00 every night. It is also broadcast on most of the BBC's local radio frequencies across England as well as on Radio Scotland, Radio Cymru and Radio Ulster.
Contents
The Washington Post once described the show as probably the best night-time radio show in the world.
History
Up All Night has been broadcast continuously since Radio 5 Live's launch on 28 March 1994. One of the show's two main presenters, Rhod Sharp, had proposed the idea of an all-night radio show for the new station that made use of the BBC's correspondents from all over the world. He has continued to present several shows each week ever since. Dotun Adebayo is the show's second main presenter, hosting the show from Friday night to Sunday night. Previous presenters included Richard Dallyn, Dalya Raphael and Russell Fuller.
Broadcast locations
Originally broadcast from studios at Broadcasting House, London, along with the rest of the BBC Radio 5 Live scheduled programmes the production was moved to MediaCityUK, Salford, Greater Manchester in 2012.
After 9/11, where he reported for BBC News, while taking a sabbatical Sharp and his wife fell in love with the fishing town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, in the United States. Since 2004 he has presented his nights on the show (Monday to Wednesday), from the town. Initially using the studio's and ISDN line of local radio station WESX, since 2007 he has presented the show from a home studio within the couple's 18th-century house in Marblehead’s Old Town section. Broadcasting from the United States makes Sharp "pretty unique" among BBC radio hosts, according to former BBC deputy news director Stephen Mitchell.
Features
The show has a heavy interest in the United States and often features news and interviews from there. The Super Bowl has also been broadcast in an extended programme; this however is streamed from another provider and cannot be broadcast live on the Internet for copyright reasons.
The programme has launched a couple of Twitter pages and has a group on Facebook. Some elements of the show are available to download by podcast. Namely; The Tech Phone-In and Game On (under the Let's Talk About Tech thread), World Football Phone-In and Dr Karl.
Regular features
The programme has gained a cult audience because of its off-beat approach to the news combined with various regular features:
For many years from the beginning of the programme the film critic Dave Aldridge was a weekly contributor. In 2007 the programme pioneered a monthly live mental health phone-in with regular guest, Martin Seager, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and adult psychotherapist who heads an NHS psychological services department in the London area.
Another former contributor was Cash Peters, who reported from California on the latest US television news.