Gary Davies

Gary Davies (born 13 December 1954, Manchester, England) is a British broadcaster. During the 1980s and early 1990s he was a BBC Radio 1 disc jockey and a regular presenter of Top of the Pops.

After working in marketing for a mail order company and managing a Manchester disco, Davies began his broadcasting career at Manchester's Piccadilly Radio in 1979 before joining BBC Radio 1 in 1982 to present a Saturday late night show, making his debut on 4 December 1982. Within weeks he was on the roster to present Top Of The Pops on BBC television alongside his Radio 1 colleagues. He initially spoke with strong hints of a Mancunian accent, but by the mid-1980s he had adopted an exaggerated mid-Atlantic twang.

In 1984, Davies was given the slot for which he became one of radio's biggest stars when he took over the Radio 1 lunchtime show. He called it The Bit In The Middle and it consisted of humorous features, such as The Day-To-Day Challenge, in which the same person would go on air each weekday to answer quiz questions and try to upgrade their prize, and Willy On The Plonker, which involved a crazed piano-playing of a well-known hit for listeners to identify.

The show was hugely important in the 1980s as, at this time the new UK Top 40 was announced on Tuesday afternoons.

The show always ended with the instrumental section of The Look of Love by ABC from the album The Lexicon of Love.

There was a marketability about Davies as he was regarded by some female listeners as a heart-throb. He was projected as an eligible bachelor of the station, complete with a catchphrase "Young, Free and Single" and a jingle "Wooh! Gary Davies".

Davies became popular on the Radio 1 roadshows throughout the 1980s but his own show rarely changed until it was rebranded in 1991 as Let's Do Lunch, with new features, including Spin & Win (a variation on Willy On The Plonker, with a cryptic clue replacing the frenetic piano work) and the Classic Track, which was the one time of the week Radio 1 played a piece of classical music. Previous feature The Sloppy Bit (a dedication followed by love song) was unchanged but renamed Lots Of Love. He also introduced The Non Stop Half Hour from after the 2.30pm news until 3pm, which was half an hour of non stop music.

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