- Matthew Wright
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For other people named Matthew Wright, see Matthew Wright (disambiguation).
Matthew Wright Born Alexander Matthew Wright
8 July 1965
Croydon, Surrey, EnglandOccupation Broadcaster, journalist Notable credit(s) The Wright Stuff Official website Matthew Wright (born Alexander Matthew Wright on 8 July 1965, Croydon, Surrey) is an English journalist and television presenter. Formerly a writer for The Sun and The Daily Mirror, he has hosted the topical discussion series The Wright Stuff on weekdays on Channel Five since 2000.
Contents
Early life
Wright started his career at 14 appearing in the Children's Film Foundation production Big Wheels And Sailor (1979).[citation needed]
Education
Wright was educated at the voluntary-aided Roman Catholic boys' school John Fisher School in Purley, Surrey and was in the same class as the artist and sculptor Diarmuid Bryon O'Connor and DJ Gilles Peterson. Following school, Wright attended the University of Exeter, graduating in English and Drama.[1]
Career
Wright became a showbiz journalist with The Sun and gained his own column with The Daily Mirror in the 1990s. In 1998 Wright reviewed the play The Dead Monkey starring David Soul, calling it "without doubt the worst West End show", despite the fact that he had never seen it. In 2001 Soul won £30,000 in a libel case against Wright.[2]
He left The Daily Mirror in 2000 to launch mykindaplace.com.[3]Wright has hosted the eponymous daytime talk show The Wright Stuff for Channel Five since 2000. It was on this show that Wright inadvertently revealed John Leslie as the celebrity alleged to have raped Ulrika Jonsson. Police investigated the claims against Leslie, but never charged him in connection with the Jonsson case. Wright and Leslie later made fun of the situation in the video for Bo' Selecta's 2003 Christmas single. Wright is notable for his often implied sense of rivalry with fellow daytime TV star Jeremy Kyle (often referred to by Wright as 'Jeremy Vile').[citation needed]
Wright was a contributor to Phil Collins: A Life Less Ordinary, a BBC documentary made in 2002 which charted the life and career of the Genesis star and solo artist.
Wright presented Radio 2's arts and culture show The Weekender until July 2008. He also presents BBC1 current affairs series Inside Out London.[4]
Opinions
Wright is an outspoken critic of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, referring to it as "Britain Exploits the Mentally Challenged", and even more so of The X Factor, which he feels takes over all the papers[citation needed]. He often mentions his rival TV presenter Jeremy Kyle on his programme, always in a negative way, and refers to him as "Jeremy Vile"[citation needed]. Wright has said: "I’d say our show is about the normal world while he plumbs the depths of inbred, alkie, junkie wasters with rampant sex lives."[5]
Wright once accused a caller of being sexist when the caller referred Football being a mans game. This is despite the caller using the term as a figure of speech rather then being literal.
As a joke, he suggested sharing the new Emirates Stadium, which belongs Arsenal FC, with a prison due to the shortage of jail cells. He has also repeatedly suggested reintroducing the stocks to publicly humiliate criminals.[citation needed]
Wright has associated himself with several political causes over the years. He is a long-time supporter of nuclear disarmament in the UK and was involved in marches in the early 1980s. He is also a fierce critic of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, especially over his decision to take Britain into the Iraq War, which Wright marched against (although he later interviewed Blair on his programme during the 2005 general election campaign). He has also criticised Blair’s substantial earnings since leaving office, in particular his involvement with the UI Energy Corporation, which has oil interests in Iraq, and often refers to the millions of “socialist pounds” Blair has made. On 2 September 2010, he described Blair as being "as cunning as a fox, slick as the Gulf of Mexico and just as oily". He has dubbed Blair's memoir A Journey "The Book of Lies".[citation needed] In December 2010, Wright criticised Blair's ownership of five houses on his show, stating: "Tony Blair ended up with five houses as a result of the boom years of Labour. And when he was interviewed by Andrew Marr about the five houses, Tony offered the righteous, socialist excuse that he has to look after his children, of which I believe there are four. Four children, five houses. So it's a little bit beyond a house per child."[6] In March 2011, Wright described Blair as "a good friend" of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, while showing a photograph of Blair shaking Gaddafi's hand, and criticised Blair for selling guns and crowd control weapons to Gaddafi for him to use against his own people.[7]
Personal life
Wright is a live music enthusiast and regularly attends concerts. The first band he saw live was Queen at Purley, London in 1979. He regularly appears on stage with space rockers Hawkwind[citation needed]; Wright released a single with the band Spirit of the Age[8] in 2006, and is credited on the Hawkwind album Take Me To Your Leader released the same year.[9] He regularly mentions the band on The Wright Stuff. He is also a big fan of Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Sparklehorse, Gong, Grateful Dead, Focus, Giant Sand, Lambchop, Will Oldham, Patti Smith, Echo & the Bunnymen, Steve Hillage, Buzzcocks, Cardiacs, Nick Cave, Budgie and Midlake.
He claims Here & Now’s Fantasy Shift is the record that changed his life.[10]
Wright who has no children,[11] married his long term girlfriend Music Executive Amelia Gatte in 2010.[12] Wright is also a huge Cricket fan.
References
- ^ "Matthew Wright". http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/articles/2007/08/14/matthew_wright_feature.shtml.
- ^ "Soul 'vindicated' by libel win". BBC. 12 December 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/1705581.stm. Retrieved 12 December 2001.
- ^ John Diamond (27 December 2000). "'And the nominations are ' JOHN DIAMOND hands out his end-of-year media awards". London: Evening Standard. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-5291110.html. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
- ^ BBC Inside Out
- ^ "Matthew Wright: 'I'd love to do Strictly Come Dancing'". http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/838972-matthew-wright-id-love-to-do-strictly-come-dancing.
- ^ The Wright Stuff, 1 December 2010
- ^ The Wright Stuff, 21 March 2011
- ^ "Spirit Of The Age" music video on YouTube
- ^ Hawkwind Museum gallery
- ^ Hall, John (11 August 2010). "My Life in Ten Questions... Matthew Wright". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/my-life-in-ten-questions-matthew-wright-2049889.html.
- ^ The Wright Stuff, 13 January 2011
- ^ Anstead, Mark (20 August 2010). "I know plenty of people who get by on �25,000". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/7956926/I-know-plenty-of-people-who-get-by-on-25000.html.
External links
Categories:- People from Croydon
- 1965 births
- Living people
- English journalists
- English television presenters
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