Phil Gayle (born April 6, 1964 in Birmingham, England) is a newsreader, currently working as a freelance journalist. Former credits include the The Big Breakfast and The ITV News Channel.

Phil Gayle's other TV credits include First Edition, Crimewatch Daily, Seven Days and That's Esther; as well as several LWT current affairs programmes including The Week and The London Programme.

Radio

Before getting into TV, Phil Gayle was a DJ on various local radio stations. Between 1986 and 1988, Phil worked at BRMB Radio, Birmingham. Music DJ presenting various overnight, late night and early morning shows.

In 1988, he moved on to Signal Radio, Stoke. Phil presented a live weekday three-hour night time phone-in five nights per week. He also co-presented the Saturday afternoon sports programme which also included live interviews and music.

1995 saw Phil move to Rock FM, as a Preston Music DJ. He presented the Sunday evening, post Network Chart show alongside two weekend overnight shows.

Between 1995 – 1996 he presented a live current affairs and lifestyle phone-in on BBC Radio Newcastle. Here Phil broke several stories that were subsequently picked up by national press. The shows would typically feature one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, on-the-road reports and live audience debates.

Since then, Phil has done a variety of radio work in a one-off form or providing relief for existing presenters. Between 2000 and 2001 Phil was a relief presenter for various live two and three hour shows on LBC. In 2002 he would return as a relief presenter for Steve Allan on his live mid morning daily show as well as the LBC breakfast show.

Television

In 1997, Phil joined Channel 4. Here he was employed as a newsreader on their light-entertainment morning show The Big Breakfast, a long-running early morning light entertainment show that enjoyed huge success for most of its run, suffering only when its most popular presenters left in 2001. This remains the role Gayle is arguably most famous for today. Gayle took over the role from Peter Smith and would fill this role until 2000 when he was succeeded by Jasmine Lowson, but would return for the show for its final broadcast in 2002. He would also go on to present other programmes for Channel 4 such as First Edition (1997-2002), a 30 minute current affairs programme aimed at school age children and the Channel 4 News, where he would act as the second presenter on the live, daily hour long news programme.

In 1998 he co-presented original broadcast pilot of the live, prime-time show Find A Fortune on ITV, surprising people with inheritances they did not know about, providing situation updates throughout the show and presenting recorded reports in the field.

2000 saw Phil begin work for the BBC where he would present several programmes. Between 2000 and 2001, Phil Co-presented Crimewatch Daily on BBC1. This was a daily live morning show on crime which included live studio and telephone interviews. In the same year he would also present a segment on walking holidays in the Lake District on the BBC One programme Holiday On A Shoestring.

In 2001, Gayle moved to rival broadcaster ITV and had a major role in the show That's Esther. Here he would be the on-the-road reporter for the half-hour consumer affairs and human-interest series. He would also act as the main reporter on anti-scalding campaign and interviews with ‘characters’ overcoming the odds during the show's run between 2001 and 2002.

Since then, Gayle has appeared in numerous LWT news-based programmes. Between 2002 - 2005 he was the newsreader and reporter on the regional London news programmes London Today & London Tonight. Phil was also the presenter of monthly current affairs documentary series The London Programme, which dealt with issues affecting London and the Southeast The third LWT production Gayle would front was The Week, a weekly current affairs show for London and the Southeast.

Between 2002-2005, Phil worked as a news reader on the now defunct digital news station ITV News Channel.

Recent Media Work

Between 2005-2006, Gayle worked and travelled in Australia.

Phil is the brother of lad lit writer Mike Gayle and took part in the 2007 series of ITV's Dancing on Ice where he finished 10th, losing to Ulrika Jonsson in the week two 'skate off'.

External link

• Phil Gayle at the Internet Movie Database