Saying the unthinkable: The life of James Whale in eight controversies
In the edgy Nineties, this made him a cult star, with his wee-hours The James Whale Radio Show one of the most reliably unpredictable slots on television (as well as airing on Radio Aire, it was simulcast on national TV). Rows, near-fistfights and marathon swearing sessions were all part of the mix in an era in which such outrageous entertainment simply wasn't available anywhere else.
His love for going over the top would later catch up with him and ultimately proved detrimental to his career, when cancel culture was a bullet every presenter had to dodge. As fans and detractors alike mark his passing at age 74, here, then, is the life of James Whale in eight controversies.
1. Almost coming to blows with a comedian
Long-haired comic Rob Newman was the toast of the Britpop set, but he didn't have a fan in Whale, who seemed to have invited him on to the James Whale Radio Show in 1990 simply to wind up the usually amicable performer.
He started by introducing Rob as a comedian of many talents, before adding, 'We've yet to find one'.
'Good one, good one,' said an unimpressed Newman. Later, as Newman reached across for a cup of tea, Whale said, 'Lean in front of me again, I'll give you a kick.' Then, when Whale approached the camera to wish his [Whale's] mother well during her stay in hospital, Newman retorted, 'She's got cancer.' Whale asked the audience whether this was funny; no one laughed.
The agonising segment concluded with Whale dubbing his guest 'an absolute pillock' and Newman exclaiming, 'Ooh, I've been sussed by James Whale.' Even by the anything-goes standards of early-Nineties broadcasting, the level of vitriol between the two was shocking.
2. Escorting a drunken rock star off the set
In the same year in which he verbally sparred with Rob Newman, Whale went one farther and marched a sozzled Wayne Hussey of goth-rockers the Mission off the air.
Hussey appeared largely relieved by the turn of events, later revealing that he had been warned to stay clear of Whale. 'Everybody advised me not to do it. [They said] he's gonna wind you up and make you look a fool,' he recalled. 'And I thought, 'There's no way he's going to make me look a fool.''
Hussey had just played a gig in Sheffield and was four (possibly five) sheets to the wind by the time he reached Whales's studio in Leeds. Largely incoherent, he chuckled obliviously at Whale's banter and didn't know how to react when the host took him by the arm and invited him into the wings, where he was escorted away.
'I was very, very drunk, and very, very happy,' said Hussey. 'I went there with the conscious decision of not letting him get one over.'
3. Considering running for Mayor of London
Whale struck up a friendship with future Ukip leader Nigel Farage in the late 1990s, when Farage was a regular on the host's late-night TalkSportshow.
'I would go on at 10pm, having agreed to do an hour to comment on the next day's newspaper headlines,' Farage would later write in The Express.
'Several times when 11pm came, he asked me to stay, so I stayed on air until midnight. On a few occasions, he insisted I stay right through to 1am. This left me stranded, as I'd missed my last train home. But James always obliged and gave me a lift.'
It was during one such appearance that Farage suggested Whale run for Mayor of London. He gave it serious thought – until he was warned by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom that doing so would breach broadcasting rules around impartiality. His response was to describe Ofcom as 'an august body that seems to exist for no apparent reason'.
Whale finally provoked the wrath of Ofcom in 2008 when he urged his listeners to vote for Boris Johnson for Mayor, leading to a £20,000 fine for TalkSport, which promptly sacked him. Undeterred, in 2010 he once again considered running as a Ukip candidate for Mayor, against Ken Livingstone. He vowed to scrap the congestion charge, do away with 'appalling parking Gestapo officers', free the people of London from 'unfair taxes and continuous intrusion in their daily lives', and recruit his friend Peter Stringfellow to improve London's image.
Farage wasn't the only politician with whom he crossed paths. He recalled Stringfellow inviting him to one of his clubs to 'meet somebody'.
'We turned up and he sat me down at this table with this woman. And I thought, gosh, I recognise you, who's that?' Whale remembered. 'And it was Margaret Thatcher. He'd invited me to a do – they were doing fundraising for the Conservatives – and here was Margaret Thatcher in his club in the West End, chatting to all the people. It was quite a bizarre evening.'
4. Walking off his own show
It had been a long night for Whale in 2023, who had grown fed up with hosting a debate about the NHS on TalkTV.
'I don't want to be on the show,' he suddenly declared while whipping out his earpiece. In the glory days of the James Whale Radio Show, he was famous for goading guests into leaving (see Rob Newman above). Now it was Whale himself who was exiting, and footage of him stomping off the air quickly went viral.
5. Mocking the entire nation of Wales
It was a case of Whale vs Wales after he mocked King Charles for addressing the Welsh assembly in their native language during his first appearance as monarch at the devolved parliament in 2022. Describing Charles's attempt as 'embarrassing', he questioned why 'we needed to hear Welsh in the first place'.
As somebody whose mother was Welsh and Bourne in the valleys and never spoke Welsh most Welsh people I just wish King Charles didn't feel the necessity to try and do it most people in Wales don't speak Welsh and it's an embarrassment to C
— James Whale MBE. (@THEJamesWhale) September 16, 2022
'As somebody whose mother was Welsh and born in the valleys and never spoke Welsh… I just wish King Charles didn't feel the necessity to try and do it,' he continued in a tweet. 'Most people in Wales don't speak Welsh and it's an embarrassment.'
A furore ensued – even Rick McMurray of the indie band Ash felt the need to comment. 'Why are you so upset about a language? Are you K?'
6. Having a meltdown on Big Brother
There was tension from the outset between Whale and Loose Women panellist Saira Khan when they went on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, with Khan asking the broadcaster if he was 'racist'.
'I've never heard so much rubbish in my entire life,' he said in the first of several heated exchanges between the two. 'I don't think I am known for that. Am I known for that? I don't know. I really don't know. I've been one of the judges of the British curry awards for 10 years.'
Things escalated farther as Whale told fellow contestants that Khan thought he was racist. (She said that she was merely asking the question.) He batted away her protests, saying he had 'a strange sense of humour'.
7. Rowing with Lizzie Cundy about Meghan Markle
A segment about the Queen's Platinum Jubilee went quickly south when Whale invited TV personality Lizzie Cundy on to discuss Meghan Markle 's relationship with the Royal family. Cundy tore up a cardboard mask of Markle, saying, 'She's not a royal anymore.'
Whale accused his guest of peddling 'nonsense' and asked her to leave the set – and then the whole thing blew up on social media. Cundy didn't bear a grudge, however. 'Thank you, dear friend, for everything,' she wrote on Instagram after Whale's death was announced. 'Not sure how I will cope.'
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Lizzie Cundy (@lizziecundy)
8. Taking on the trans community
Whale took great joy in giving 'the PC lobby … a good stiff kicking'. To that end, he labelled a TalkSport traffic reporter 'the Traffic Trannie – Britain's only transvestite traffic reporter', for which he was widely criticised.
But he was never black and white on these issues. In 1994, he presented a one-off special, Trannies Galore, in which he interviewed members of the transgender community. Just last year, he hung up on women's rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen during a TalkTV debate over whether trans women should be allowed to use female toilets, having explained that an acquaintance of his did just that.
'Thank you Kellie, I've had enough, you've been very insulting to a good friend of mine,' he said. Up to the end, he was full of surprises.
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