Thousands of listeners wake up to the cheerful sound of Andy Twigge on their local BBC radio station at weekends. He admits he’s very lucky to be in a job that many people would love to do. And despite being in broadcasting for more than 30 years, Andy reckons he still has plenty to give.
I met Andy at BBC Radio Derby where he told me he didn’t get into radio until he was in his thirties; how he was petrified when he joined the BBC; how radio cost him his marriage; and his descent into a bad place when he was suffering from depression.
Andrew Charles Twigge who was born in September 1956 confesses he was rubbish at school. He thinks if pupils in those days were tested, he would have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“I lose interest very quickly, apart from four hours when I’m doing a radio programme. So if you bore me, I tune out.”
“If I start reading a book, by the end of the first page I’m thinking ‘what am I having for my tea tonight?’ or ‘what am I doing tomorrow? When am I playing golf again?’ And I don’t even know what I’ve read.”
After leaving school Andy went to South East Derbyshire College at Heanor.
“I always remember the lady who was our tutor for English literature. She said to me: ‘this essay you’ve written is one of the most descriptive things I’ve read. But grammatically it’s the worst I’ve ever read.’
‘My spelling was atrocious. But that doesn’t make me a bad person.”
The son of a farm worker, Andy naturally enough went to work on a farm for his first job. It lasted four hours!
“They tried to get me to carry these telegraph poles sawn in half, carry them down a field. I said there was a tractor and trailer, why didn’t I use that? I lasted half a day. I had my lunch and went home.”
A succession of jobs followed. He joined a mate who was working for Rightwear Fabrics making material for bras. “It was a boring job but the camaraderie was good. I’m a people person. I never forget where I’ve come from.”
Andy then became a milkman “he was sacked when he spilt milk destined for a school. He says he was Derbyshire’s worst bricklayer, a lorry driver, a greetings cars salesman and a market trader.”
“If there’s a destiny and a calling, I had it for a long time but I didn’t know about it.”
That calling was being a radio presenter. He started at the commercial station Radio Trent 945. His first job? Sweeping the car park!
When someone was needed to do other jobs, they called on Andy. He began putting commercials together and then became the event manager for Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.
“We put some big shows on. I used to book all the bands. We did Westlife and we did Take That loads of times.
When Take That were starting off in 1992 they appeared at the Pavilion Bandstand in Matlock Bath. It was teeming down with rain and about 400 girls turned up. It was incredible. Take That got changed in the back of Trent FM’s Transit van.”
Andy’s hopes of progressing to the airwaves were soon dashed. “People used to say to me you’re too old to become a presenter because everybody used to pigeon-hole presenters into young Radio 1 types, even though they had Simon Bates on at the time.”
“But I was infatuated with radio. I always have been. I just didn’t realise it until I was in my thirties.”
Despite that Andy did become a presenter. Trent FM was taken over by Global Radio which became Capital and Andy worked on both the breakfast show and Drivetime.
He teamed up with Jo Russell at Ram and Trent. Jo and Twiggy won several awards including European best breakfast show at a ceremony in Barcelona.
“Then they made the right call, I was too old for the brand. They were very kind to me. I didn’t regret one minute of having to say goodbye because I knew it was right.”
Andy then moved to Oak FM, a small station in Leicestershire, and was astonished at the difference in salary. “But they were really happy times. It was a tiny little station that broadcast to Hinckley, Burbage, Loughborough, Hathern and all round there and we were nominated for an award. That was a massive achievement for us to get nominated. They were great days.”
Andy was there for about three years. At that time he received permission from his bosses to do some work at Radio Derby to increase his income because he was struggling on his Oak salary.
He and a colleague tried to buy Oak FM but when that didn’t materialise, he had to go to Radio Derby “with my tail between my legs” and ask for a job. He’d already turned them down twice.
Andy, who sounds exactly the same off air as he does on it, loves talking and rarely stops to take a breath.
He explains he was doing a lunchtime show at Radio Derby but Covid came and presenters were given longer, four-hour shows. The lunchtime programme was axed. Much to his surprise, he was offered the breakfast show.
“They wanted to have a little change around. I was gobsmacked. I thought: “me, a clown, doing the breakfast show on a BBC local radio station? You’re kidding me. I can’t do that! But they said yes, you can.”
“We went a little bit lighter with the show but as I grew into it the serious stuff excited me. I find it a challenge, I love challenges. You’ve just got to put your mind to it.”
So what’s the secret to Andy’s success? “I think listeners connect with me. I don’t class myself as a presenter. I’m a farm worker’s son with a microphone and a great big thumping transmitter.”
“I think it’s fair to say listeners warm to me, not everybody likes me, because I’m one of them who happens to be sitting here and having a bit of fun.”
“The world is full of hard news. If you consume all that hard news without having any fun, it’s a miserable place. I think if you can glue the news together with a bit of light and a bit of fun and you can make one person smile, I think you’ve done your job.”
“We paint our own pictures and if you’re clever with it, you can create a masterpiece.”
“There are listeners who listen to me and to other presenters who haven’t got any friends. They live on their own. Some of them I”m their only friend.”
“I never say ‘hello everybody’. I always say ‘morning, you. How are you? How did you sleep? Oh, it was a hot one last night, wasn’t it?’ That’s relatable. You have to connect with people. And if you don’t connect, I suggest you get another job.”
Andy reveals he was like a fish out of water when he moved from commercial radio to the BBC.
“I was petrified when I came here. I was frightened to death. This is the BBC! I’m blinkin’ proud to think my career started off sweeping a car park and now I work at the BBC. I’m very proud of that.”
Andy still gets up at 3.30am. “I’m an early bird. I’m normally in bed by half eight, nine o’clock. I like my sleep.”
But not everything has been rosy for Andy: “Radio was one of the things that cost me my marriage. I think I forgot I loved Joanne. I would probably have had a different balance if I’d realised what was ahead. But Joanne and me are still great mates.”
He talks candidly about being in an awful place when his marriage ended. He had counselling which was ‘fantastic’.
What does he make of the people who question his depression when he has such a brilliant job to fall back on?
“You can be the life and soul of the party but when you go home, you’re on your own and you take off the clown’s make-up, you’re back in the room. And that’s reality.”
“I can understand how lonely people suffer. Mine all stemmed from my marriage: 26 years, two great kids, a great ex-wife but we became like brother and sister.”
“Depression hits people in different ways. I fully get what it’s about. Sometimes I go home and I just sit there and I think ‘what’s it about?’ But then I think I’m on air at the weekend ‘yeah!’ “
Now 69-year-old Andy lives on a houseboat with Bertimus Bertoli the wonder dog, a Sprocker, a cross between a Springer and a Cocker Spaniel.
“He’s ten this year. I’m dreading when anything happens to him, I don’t know quite what I’ll do. He’s got me through divorce, Covid, mental health issues. He’s fantastic.”
Andy admits he wasn’t happy when the decision was made to take him off the weekday breakfast show.
“First of all I was hurt inside. But my eldest daughter said to me: ‘dad, how long do you want to keep getting up five days a week at 3.30?’ And I thought this was no different from when I took over the breakfast show. Radio evolves. It needs freshening up.”
I point out that Andy seems to have gained more energy since he took over the weekend breakfast show last July. He disagrees.
“I think weekday breakfast is a different animal because there are a lot more serious issues. Tone is so important. At weekends nothing major happens, so it’s a lighter listen.”
“I feel freer. I feel like I haven’t got any restrictions. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.”
On the day we met, Andy had just had a meeting with his bosses who were delighted with his weekend breakfast show. Now he’s going to try to build up weekends even more.
“I’m not done with radio yet and I’m not sure whether radio has done with me.”
“Whatever happens I’m dead proud of my career. You carry a massive responsibility to do this job. I give it 100%. I just love it and I wouldn’t change anything.”
Listeners across the East Midlands will be delighted to know Andy Twigge will continue for a long time to wake us up at weekends with his chirpy outlook.
