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Des Clarke (comedian)

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Des Clarke
Born (1981-01-13) 13 January 1981 (age 43)
Glasgow, Scotland
EducationHolyrood R.C Secondary School
OccupationStand-up comedian
Career
ShowRadio Presenter at Heart Scotland
Time slotMon-Fri, 6am–10am

Desmond Martin Clarke[1] (born 13 January 1981) is a Scottish stand-up comedian and television/radio presenter.[2][3][4][5] Clarke currently presents Heart Breakfast on Heart Scotland (weekdays from 6am-10am with co-host Jennifer Reoch from STV), and writes a weekly column in the Daily Record,[6] and also presents the BBC Radio Scotland topical quiz show Breaking the News.[7]

Early life

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Clarke was raised in the Gorbals district of Glasgow and attended Holyrood Secondary School.[8]

Career

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Television

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Clarke presented ITV's children's television show SMTV Live from March to December 2003, following the departure of Ant & Dec.[9] He has hosted Whatever on Sky One, Discovery's Invention SOS and Club Cupid, the adult dating show on STV as well as fronting the Scottish coverage of Children in Need.[10] Clarke has also been involved in sports broadcasting, appearing regularly on BBC One Scotland’s flagship football programmes, Offside and Sportscene as well as Sportsround on the CBBC Channel. At the end of 2007, Clarke hosted From SR to Lavvie Heid: How We Made the Break, an affectionate look at the top 50 adverts shown in Scotland since 1957 as part of the celebrations for STV's 50th birthday.

Clarke has also appeared in BBC One's Live Floor Show and BBC Two's World Cup's Most Shocking Moments.[11] In 2014, Clarke was a panelist on CBBC's The Dog Ate My Homework. He is also a regular warm-up comedian for BBC Scotland. Clarke hosted the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.[9] In 2019, Clarke made a guest appearance in the first episode of the ninth series of Still Game. Clarke is the announcer for the 2024 British version of Jeopardy!.

Radio

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Clarke spent three years as a DJ on Scottish radio station Beat 106, fronting the Breakfast Show and winning the Presenter of the Year at the British Radio Awards in 2004.[citation needed] Clarke later returned to Beat 106 under its new name of Xfm Scotland. On 7 November 2008, Xfm Scotland became Galaxy Scotland and on 10 November 2008, Clarke began hosting a weekday breakfast show with Vanessa Motion, Des & Vanessa @ Breakfast. On 3 January 2011, Galaxy Scotland was renamed and rebranded as Capital Scotland, where he became a breakfast co-presenter alongside Jennie Cook,[12] and later Steven Mill and Amy Irons.[13] He left Capital Breakfast after Global Radio announced that Heart, Capital, and Smooth would be moving to all National Breakfast shows.

In 2015, Clarke began presenting the topical quiz show Breaking the News on Radio Scotland.[14]

In March 2019, it was announced that Clarke would be moving to Heart Scotland as part of a reshuffle at Global Radio.[15] Clarke presents the Heart Scotland Drivetime Show weekdays from 4pm–7pm alongside Jennifer Reoch.[16]

In April 2023, Global announced a refreshed schedule for Heart Scotland and its sister station Capital Scotland. Des & Jennifer were confirmed to be new hosts of Heart Breakfast with Des & Jennifer weekdays from 6:30am. Broadcasting LIVE from Glasgow to Scottish listeners, moving away from Heart Breakfast with Jamie & Amanda, which continues to broadcast to the rest of the UK. The new schedule for Scotland started on 2nd May.[17][18]

Comedy

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Clarke is a regular performer on the comedy circuit, playing venues such as The Stand, The Comedy Store and Jongleurs. Clarke has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2001 and the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Clarke has also made appearances at the New York, Adelaide, Dubai and Dublin Comedy Festivals.

Theatre

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In 2012, Clarke starred as the lead comic role, Buttons, in Cinderella, at the King's Theatre in Glasgow. He starred alongside Karen Dunbar as The Fairy Godmother and Gavin Mitchell as an Ugly Sister. He has been a regular Panto veteran at the King's Theatre starring alongside the likes of Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper, Greg McHugh and Juliet Cadzow.

References

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  1. ^ Statutory registers - Births - Search results, ScotlandsPeople
  2. ^ "Introducing... comedian Des Clarke". scotsman.com.
  3. ^ "BBC Three - Comedy At The Fringe - Des Clarke". BBC.
  4. ^ "5 Things you might not know about - Des Clarke". The List.
  5. ^ "Comedy at the Fringe: Des Clarke". theskinny.co.uk.
  6. ^ "Des Clarke - Daily Record". dailyrecord.co.uk.
  7. ^ "Des Clarke - Breaking the News". 13 May 2015.
  8. ^ Swarbrick, Susan (21 March 2015). "The trouble with being Des Clarke ... The Glasgow comedian has a new tour". Evening Times. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  9. ^ a b Paul, William (9 February 2020). "10 things that changed my life: Des Clarke, comedian and presenter". The National. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  10. ^ "Des Clarke: The Trouble with Being Des". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  11. ^ "World Cup's Most Shocking Moments". 1 June 2010 – via IMDb.
  12. ^ "Galaxy radio chiefs dump Vanessa Motion from breakfast show". Daily Record. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  13. ^ "Capital FM Network (Part 2) - Page 185". Digital Spy. 3 February 2017.
  14. ^ "Breaking the News". Des Clarke. 13 May 2015.
  15. ^ Capital Scotland [@CapitalScotland] (11 March 2019). "Which means that after more than 10 years waking up Scotland, @des_clarke is moving over to Heart Scotland. We'd like to wish him a massive good luck, (not that he needs it) and send big love to Steven and Amy for their incredible run on the show" (Tweet). Retrieved 11 March 2019 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ "New Heart Scotland Drivetime presenter announced | The Scotsman". 12 July 2019.
  17. ^ "Tele's awards host to present Heart Scotland's new breakfast radio show". Greenock Telegraph.
  18. ^ "Global makes major investment in Glasgow broadcast centre". 11 April 2023.
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