Former BBC Radio Lancashire presenter and television host Jim Bowen has died at the age of 80.
Jim spent a number of years on his local BBC radio station in Lancashire, hosting the Happy Daft Farm mid-morning show from 1999 to 2002. His wife confirmed the sad news of his death to the station today (Wednesday).
Jim was also a stand-up comedian and school headmaster before becoming a household name hosting Bullseye from 1981 for 14 years.
He resigned from BBC Radio Lancashire against his will, after getting in trouble for making a racist remark on air. He returned in 2007 and 2009 as a special guest on different programmes. He also hosted a mid-morning show on 106.6 Indigo FM in Cumbria in 2009.
On 27 August 2012, Jim reunited with co-presenter Sally Naden for a one-off show at BBC Radio Lancashire. His real name was James Whittaker.
What a deeply unpleasant human being David Baddiel is.
RIP Jim. I hope that Challenge pays tribute to you by showing a whole weekend of Bullseye episodes this Saturday and Sunday.
ITV should as it was their show.
Classic Bowen from Bullseye:
JIM: What do you do for a living?
CONTESTANT: I’m unemployed Jim.
JIM: Super.
Only he could get away with that.
One thing is though, at least he could laugh at himself.
“When I started doing Bullseye in 1981, we put the television industry back 20 years. When we finished, we’d still put it back 20 years. I knew I was rubbish, but they kept asking me back.”
Over the last couple of years, that variety club in the sky has suddenly got one hell of a line up – Doddy, Brucie, The Two Ronnies, now Jim Bowen.
RIP Jim.
For the record, his birth name was Peter Williams. James Whittaker came about after he was adopted as a kid and his name was changed.