BBC Radio 4 favourite Paddy O’Connell, 53, began his radio career as a trainee at the BBC back in 1989. Over the years, he has been part of the team launching BBC Radio Five Live, BBC Three and has appeared on BBC Breakfast as a business reporter. “I’ve been fired a lot,” he explained, speaking to this week’s Radio Times. “But you only need to be hired one more time than you are fired. And I am good at showing up.”
Paddy admitted: “A lot of my peers have done better, quicker than me, but I am not a jealous person.
“And I think I’m getting more ambitious at the age of 53,” he added.
The BBC Radio 4 star went on to reveal it wasn’t his long-running relationship with the BBC which rescued his rollercoaster career, however.
“I was saved by LBC Radio,” he told the publication. “The first time I was ever boring listeners on a Sunday was on LBC.
“I used to stand in for James O’Brien on his phone-in and sometimes no one would call me,” he recalled.
“One woman hung up on me on air.”
Paddy has worked extensively for LBC alongside his presenting duties for the BBC.
He is also known across the pond, having worked as BBC News’ North America Business Correspondent and Wall Street actor in the late 90s, when he was based in New York.
Nowadays, he hosts Radio 4’s Sunday morning programme Broadcasting House.
The DJ is also an expert on the Eurovision Song Contest, hosting some of the coverage of the competition on the BBC.
A memorable moment in his career occurred when he choked up after hearing journalist Emilie Blachère read the poem she had written about her partner Rémi Ochlik’s death during the Syrian civil war.
Overwhelmed with emotion following the poignant reading, Paddy remained silent on air for 12 seconds.
Of the incident, he said: “I am the man who nearly broke Radio 4.”
The presenter went on note the rule against silence on the radio.
He recounted how he had, in fact, heard the poem before the transmission, but was moved by seeing of his colleagues’ responses through the studio’s glass window.
Read the full interview with Paddy O’Connell in this week’s Radio Times — out now.
