TV Cream

Radio 2: The Hosts

JACOBS, David

Is it too cruel to say "wins more awards than he does listeners"?ADVANCED-LEVEL Big Band-fixated roller-back-of-the-clock extraordinaire who started in the dim and distant past of Radio Newsreel, Housewives Choice and Pick Of The Pops, which he inherited from Alan Dell in 1957, though it has to be said that rock’n’roll and indeed most of what came after was never really his ‘bag’. A much publicised “spat” with Pete Murray was in fact all cooked up for publicity (“people wrote to say they enjoyed the insults more than the pop records!”) though greater fame was acquired through his Man With The Triangle Nose-esque playing of multiple parts in snail-paced ancient radio sci-fi saga Journey Into Space. Proceeded to sidle around the network, most famously hosting the ultimate schedule filler Our Kind Of Music, and dallied on Radio 4 (Any Questions?, complete with on-air pelting with stones of Enoch Powell) besides moonlighting on telly (Come Dancing, Juke Box Jury and the early years of TOTP). Currently holding on in the Sunday night graveyard shift, “opening the cabinet marked…The David Jacobs Collection!”, and occasionally roped in by Radcliffe and Maconie for brilliantly punning Clapton-centric feature ‘Jacobs’ Cream Crackers’.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Glenn A

    June 29, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    He also had the most unwanted slot on Radio 2 for over 10 years: Melodies for You. Rather than enthuse about his beloved Sinatra, DJ was reduced to playing miserable, scratchy opera records from the twenties, bizarre parlour songs and snatches of classical music. You can see why somehow he was delighted to be given a lunchtime slot.

  2. Applemask

    November 6, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    “Hello, there.”

  3. Applemask

    September 29, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    “Goodbye, there.”

  4. Glenn Aylett

    August 8, 2021 at 1:46 pm

    Ask DJ what Sinatra had for lunch one day in 1953 and he’d probably know. DJ was a man of many talents which extended to a hilarious role in Some Mothers Do Ave Em and to hosting TOTP. Apparently he had the hots for Diana Ross.

  5. THX 1139

    August 8, 2021 at 8:04 pm

    And his daughter was in The Stud!

    His Sunday night radio show was perfect wind down music before the week started again. Bit of a joker, too, he liked to tell the story of when he was almost stood up by Barbra Streisand for an interview. She eventually turned up an hour late, and demanded to know his name. When he told her, she asked, “Oh, are you Jewish?” He replied, “Yes – are you?”

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