Allan Beswick

Who is Allan Beswick?

Allan Beswick is a radio broadcaster who presents the breakfast show on BBC Radio Manchester in Manchester.

Prior to becoming a radio presenter, Beswick worked as a soldier, a bus driver and a mental health nurse and for the Citizen's Advice Bureau; during his time at the C.A.B. he began to appear as a guest on Dave Lincoln and Friends, a programme on 194 Radio City, an independent commercial station in Liverpool. In the mid to late eighties, he worked for Lancashire station Red Rose Radio where he initially presented an afternoon show which won him a Sony national radio award. He then presented a late-night phone-in The Allan Beswick Late Night Show. which drew listeners and controversy in nearly equal measure. His listening figures for this late night slot often drew audiences equal to those of many radio stations breakfast shows. The overall 'audience reach' of the programme drew in the region of 100,000 listeners per night, but a total listenership across the North West, West Yorkshire and North Wales often approached 500,000 listeners.

He was well known for his straight-talking, uncompromising style, ability to argue his case stubbornly, and penchant for insulting callers with whom he disagreed or didn't like. He was also known for his on-air professed dislike of Liverpudlians, which perversely made him extremely popular with Liverpool listeners, as they felt he typified woollybacks - people from outside the city - and all that was wrong with them. He has since said it was an act and he has no problem with Merseysiders. Other groups to incur his ire were train spotters. Callers were met usually with the introduction of 'How do'. The show ran from 10pm-1am Monday through Thursday, with the first hour usually having music content, which turned virtually exclusively to talk after the 11pm news.