Richard Littlejohn

Richard William Littlejohn (born 18 January 1954 in Ilford, Essex) is an award-winning British journalist, broadcaster, and author of three best-selling books. His twice-weekly columns in the Daily Mail and The Sun earned him a place in the inaugural 'Newspaper Hall of Fame' as one of the most influential journalists of the past 40 years. He has been Fleet Street's Columnist of the Year and was named Irritant of the Year by the BBC's What The Papers Say awards. He has written for London's Evening Standard, Punch and The Spectator.

His extensive radio and television work has brought him both a Sony award and a Silver Rose of Montreux. Littlejohn lives in Florida in the United States for much of the year.

Career

Although primarily a newspaper journalist, Littlejohn has presented numerous radio and TV shows, and has authored or co-authored several books.

Journalism

Although he was born in the East-End of London in January 1954, Littlejohn and his family moved to Peterborough when he was five. His father was an Engineer for British Rail. Littlejohn passed the Eleven-plus but turned down a scholarship at a minor public school on the grounds that they didn't play football. Instead, he attended Deacons Grammar School between 1965 and 1970. He left at the age of 16 to start work as a trainee journalist in Peterborough. He worked for several local newspapers during the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Birmingham Evening Mail, becoming its industrial editor in 1977.

He worked at the London Evening Standard from 1979 to 1989, initially as industrial editor, later becoming a feature writer and (in 1988) a columnist. Whilst industrial editor in the early 1980s he was asked to stand as a Labour Party candidate, which he declined. In 1989 he joined The Sun, quickly becoming its most popular columnist. His columns regularly attracted controversy, and he was voted "Irritant of the Year" at the 1993 What The Papers Say Awards.

In 1994, he left The Sun and started writing for the Daily Mail, contributing two opinion columns: one on news and current affairs (in a similar format to his Sun column), and one on sport. His Mail columns earned him the title "Columnist of the Year" at the 1997 British Press Awards.

In early 1998, Littlejohn became the UK's best-paid columnist when he returned to The Sun to write a twice-weekly column as part of a £800,000-a-year deal (which also saw him present a regular TV programme, Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed, on Sky One). It was subsequently cancelled due to poor ratings.

In May 2005, however, he re-joined the Mail, a move he claimed was "always his intention". When news of the move broke, Mail editor Paul Dacre issued a statement praising Littlejohn, adding that he was "thrilled" that Littlejohn was "returning to his spiritual home". Littlejohn reportedly earns an annual salary of between £700,000 and £800,000, making him the Mail's highest-paid journalist.

In addition to his regular columns, Littlejohn has occasionally contributed articles to magazines such as The Spectator and Punch.

One of Littlejohn's Sun columns - a 2004 skit, entitled "Rum, Sodomy and the Lifejacket", in which Lord Nelson is confronted with political correctness, compensation culture and the nanny state - has been widely plagiarised. It has been published in several newspapers, magazines, and websites with Littlejohn's writing credit removed.

Radio

By the end of the 1980s, Littlejohn was well known in London for his Evening Standard columns, and he was regularly invited onto radio programmes as a pundit. Starting in 1991, he worked for the London radio station LBC as a guest presenter, standing in for Michael Parkinson on the morning show and for Mike Dickin on the afternoon phone-in programme.

LBC gave Littlejohn his own early afternoon show, Littlejohn's Long Lunch, in August 1992; the programme was a talk show featuring topical discussion, listener phone-ins, and celebrity guests. He later became the permanent presenter of the morning show, replacing Michael Parkinson. Littlejohn's programmes were frequently controversial, and his outspoken views attracted censure from the Radio Authority on a number of occasions. LBC was also reprimanded by the Radio Authority over some of the language and subject matter in the show (particularly sexual topics), which were judged to be inappropriate for a daytime audience.

In 1995, Littlejohn joined BBC Radio Five Live as a guest presenter on 6-0-6, a football phone-in show. He presented a number of sports programmes on the station, and in 1997 he became the permanent presenter of 6-0-6, a position he held for five years. In 2000, he won a Sony Radio Award for his work on the programme.

Television

After leaving LBC in 1994, Littlejohn was approached by BSkyB managing director (and former Sun editor) Kelvin MacKenzie, and was offered the chance to present a nightly current affairs show on the TV channel Sky News. Called Richard Littlejohn, the show ran for one year and was not a huge success. Littlejohn later expressed his disappointment, claiming that British broadcasting regulations would not permit him to present the show in the style of Rush Limbaugh's programmes: "If Sky News could emulate its U.S. sister Fox News... ratings would soon shoot past the Astra satellite. But the regulators won’t allow it."

Later in 1994, Trevor Phillips of London Weekend Television hired Littlejohn to host a studio-based talk show entitled Richard Littlejohn Live And Uncut. Phillips produced three series of the programme, which was transmitted in the London area only. In 2006 it was voted by the BBC's TV listings magazine Radio Times as one of the worst programmes ever to appear on British television, with its presenter called "as amateurish as he is odious". An infamous fault during one LWT broadcast of one episode accidentally switched to RTL Television, which, at the time, was showing softcore porn. [6] (Note: The video contains nudity. Another segment includes one use of strong language.)

Littlejohn also hosted the first series of Channel 4's game show Wanted, though he was not the producers' first choice of presenter (he was a last minute stand-in for Bob Mills). Wanted first aired in October 1996, and won a Silver Rose at the prestigious Festival Rose d'Or.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Littlejohn presented several shows for Carlton Television, including Sport In Question, Thursday Night Live, Do I Not Like That, Shut Up Shop and Forking Out For The Scots. Additionally, he has regularly appeared as a panellist and pundit on programmes such as the BBC's Question Time and Have I Got News For You.

As part of a 1997 deal which also saw him return to the Sun newspaper, Littlejohn briefly hosted a late night talk show on Sky One called Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed. It was first broadcast on 21 April 1998.

In early 2003 he returned to Sky News to present Littlejohn, a live topical talk show which was initially broadcast twice-weekly, but was later extended to four nights per week. The programme was axed in 8 July 2004. Littlejohn has stated that he has "not ruled out" the possibility of returning to Sky News in the future, but since the show was cancelled due to poor ratings, this seems unlikely.

On 9th July 2007, Channel 4 showed a documentary entitled The War On Britain's Jews, presented by Richard Littlejohn.

Books

Littlejohn has authored or co-authored several books:

• The Essex Girl Joke Book (as Ray Leigh, with Brent Wood, 1991, Corgi Publishing) - a collection of Essex girl jokes, co-written (with "Brent Wood") under the pseudonym "Ray Leigh".

• You Couldn't Make It Up (1995, Heinemann, ISBN 0-434-00238-0) - named after one of Littlejohn's catchphrases, and described on the jacket as "a brilliant collection of liberal-skewering wit and wisdom", this is a book of recollections and opinion pieces on subjects such as political correctness, politicians, corporate "fat cats", the European Union, and the British Royal Family.

• To Hell In A Handcart (2001, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-710613-0) - named after another of his catchphrases, this is Littlejohn's first and only novel, based loosely on the Tony Martin case. The book was lambasted by critics for its portrayal of asylum seekers and the stereotypical individuals in the book, notably by The Independent's David Aaronovitch who described it as "a 400-page recruiting pamphlet for the BNP". However, it received positive reviews from some conservative writers such as Frederick Forsyth and Andrew Roberts. This was later the subject of a BBC Radio Five Live discussion with Will Self (see below).

• The Book Of Useless Information (with Keith Waterhouse, 2002, Blake Publishing, ISBN 1-903402-79-4) - co-written with Keith Waterhouse, this "stocking filler" book is a collection of "useless" facts, described on the cover as "all you never needed to know and didn't need to ask."

• The Ultimate Book Of Useless Information (with Keith Waterhouse, 2004, Blake Publishing, ISBN 1-84454-060-X) - another volume of "useless" facts.

• Littlejohn's Britain - Publisher: Hutchinson (3 May 2007) ISBN-10: 0091795680 - Described by the Observer as "Lampooning New Labour with polemic, pastiche, parody, satire and savage social commentary."

Controversy and criticism

Although he is sometimes praised as an antidote to political correctness, other critics see him as a bigot. Littlejohn has shown his dislike for the far-right British National Party by describing them as "knuckle-scraping scum".

Littlejohn has also called them "Racists and Neanderthals". He has denied that he is either racist or homophobic. In a 2003 interview, he said: "People project their own prejudices on me... I'm a convenient whipping boy... I'm the 'homophobe' who had a whole column in favour of gay weddings. I'm the 'racist' who supported Trevor Phillips for London mayor. It's not enough to disagree with them [the Left] - they have to make you out to be a monster".

Criminal record

Littlejohn has a criminal conviction for violence outside a nightclub in Peterborough in his 20s. [7]

LBC radio programme

During his time at the radio station LBC, Littlejohn was censured by the Radio Authority on several occasions for breaching broadcasting rules. This culminated in an official reprimand for an edition of his phone-in show in which he described gay rights protesters outside the Houses of Parliament as "plankton" and suggested the police should use dogs and flamethrowers against them after a group of protestors "kicked lumps out of a young police officer outside the Commons".[8] The subject of the protest was the lowering of the gay age of consent, which Littlejohn described as "allow[ing] schoolboys to be buggered at sixteen". Littlejohn was judged by the Radio Authority to have breached guidelines on homophobia and incitement to violence. Littlejohn claims that gay people who worked on the programme found his comments about massacring gay people with flamethrowers "hilarious".

On another LBC phone-in programme he was again censured by the Radio Authority for describing the British Royal Family as a "bunch of tax-evading adulterers" Littlejohn is a republican.[9]

The Michael Winner incident

On one episode of Littlejohn's London Weekend Television show Richard Littlejohn Live And Uncut in July 1994, two lesbian guests (one of whom was former Lambeth council leader Linda Bellos) argued in favour of lesbians becoming parents. Littlejohn was very critical of the two women, which led to celebrity guest Michael Winner denouncing Littlejohn, saying that "I think the lesbians have come across with considerable dignity and you have come across as an arsehole" and condemned Littlejohn as homophobic. Nigella Lawson, who was also present, described Littlejohn's views as "extreme".

Littlejohn recalled this incident in his 1995 book You Couldn't Make It Up, expressing surprise that his "revolutionary opinion" that children should ideally have both a male and a female parent, and that the NHS should not subsidise artificial insemination for women "who can't even abide the thought of becoming pregnant in the natural manner", was condemned so vociferously by his guests.

The Will Self incident

On a 2001 edition of Nicky Campbell's show on BBC Radio Five Live, a heated discussion took place between Littlejohn and fellow guest Will Self. Both were on the show to promote their recently published novels (Littlejohn's To Hell in a Handcart and Self's How The Dead Live).

Campbell cited David Aaronovitch's description of Littlejohn's novel as a "400-page recruiting pamphlet for the BNP". Littlejohn responded (referring to Aaronovitch): "What else do you expect from an overgrown student union leader who used to be a member of the Communist Party?" He later boasted that he would include the quote on the cover of the book when it was reprinted. However, due to very poor sales this reprinting has not taken place.

Self then stated that he agreed with Aaronovitch's comments, and that he had read half of Littlejohn's book, which he described as "a kind of Tom Sharpe for the far right". Littlejohn said that he should "read the book in its totality", to which Self retorted "Why?... Does it turn into Tolstoy at page 205?"

Littlejohn's often-quoted response to this was: "No it doesn't turn into Tolstoy. I don't set out to be Tolstoy. It is a much more complex book than that".

Recalling the incident some time later, Self denounced Littlejohn as a bully and a coward, adding: "Ask anyone who's gay: they find him repugnant".

Attitudes to homosexuality

In recent years, Guardian journalist Marina Hyde has counted the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns, implying that he has a long-running obsession with the subject ("104 references in 90-odd columns").

Johann Hari

Journalist Johann Hari has described Littlejohn's writing as "far-right propaganda." He has accused him of lying about the benefits paid to asylum seekers.

In 2004, Hari appeared as a guest on Littlejohn's Sky News programme and challenged him about his claims that an asylum seeker could claim hundreds of pounds per week in benefits, stating that the true figure was just £37.77 per week. He later wrote: "I asked Richard how much a single asylum seeker is given in benefits each week. You'd think that a journalist who writes about asylum twice a week would, of course, know something so incredibly basic. His response was clear. He snapped: 'I have no idea'."

Hari published an article on his website in June 2005, stating that it was a "provable fact" that Littlejohn was a "racist and homophobe". The article cited Littlejohn's views on the Rwandan genocide (see above), his comments about Gypsies in the wake of the Tony Martin case: ("He [Martin] had every reason to hate them. He and his neighbours had been terrorised by them for years."), and many other statements by Littlejohn. Citing Marina Hyde's article (see above), Hari also accused Littlejohn of being obsessed with homosexuality, of joking about gay-bashing and the murder of homosexuals, and of comparing homosexuality with paedophilia and extreme fetishes. Littlejohn has not taken up Hari's invitation to sue.

In a review in the New Statesman in 2007, he furthered his criticisms, writing that "He obsessively talks about cottaging, lubricants, 69ers... I think about gay sex much less than Richard Littlejohn - and I am gay. Every problem circles back to sodomy in his mind, as he panics: 'Soon we'll have gay men going door to door, like Jehovah's Witnesses, trying to convince us to convert.' This isn't bigotry. It's a psychiatric disorder."

Ipswich murders article

On 19 December 2006, in the aftermath of the Ipswich murders of five women, Littlejohn wrote a column on the events which many, including usually loyal Daily Mail readers, found offensive and insensitive. He described the victims of the murderer as "disgusting, drug-addled street whores" and their deaths as "no great loss". He added that for prostitutes, being murdered is "an occupational hazard" stemming from their own "free choice".

Littlejohn later attacked the British servicemen and women kidnapped by the Iranian government in a similar vein, dubbing one of them "fat" and claiming they had been "cowardly". He recommended that Faye Turney, who was held hostage and had a two-year old daughter, join Celebrity Fat Club, and said she would have been last into the rescue dinghy.

Football

Littlejohn is a big fan of football, and is a keen supporter of Tottenham Hotspur football club. In 1974 he married Wendy Bosworth in Peterborough. They have two children, William and Georgina.

External links

• Richard Littlejohn biography on the website of the Noel Gay Organisation, the showbusiness agency which represents him
• Interview with Richard Littlejohn in The Times, January 2003
• Why I'll never give up the day job - an article by Littlejohn for British Journalism Review, 2002
• BBC News: Self vs. Littlejohn
• Richard Littlejohn: Racist and Homophobe - critical article by Johann Hari, June 2005
• 'The irritant label has stuck. I think it's fantastic', interview with Richard Littlejohn in The Observer, June 2007
• The new anti-Semitism: How the Left reversed history to bring Judaism under attack by Richard Littlejohn. Daily Mail 6 July 2007
• Richard Littlejohn Tackles Anti-semitism. Interview with Richard Littlejohn at TotallyJewish. 5 July 2007