Veteran broadcaster James Whale becomes MBE in New Year Honours list
He has been honoured for his services to broadcasting and to charity.
James Whale has been made an MBE in the New Year Honours list, recognising his services to broadcasting and to charity.
The broadcaster and talk show host has been a popular voice on radio and TV for more than four decades.
The 72-year-old rose to fame in the 1980s with his frank style, dry wit and no-nonsense approach on late-night programme The James Whale Radio Show, gaining a legion of loyal listeners.
Whale’s autobiography Almost A Celebrity: A Lifetime Of Night-Time was published in 2008 and he later launched a new version of The James Whale Radio Show.
In 2016, he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother alongside Christopher Biggins and Frankie Grande – the brother of US pop star Ariana.
Whale was the sixth housemate to be evicted, alongside The Only Way Is Essex star Lewis Bloor, and on his exit admitted the show had been a bigger challenge than he had expected.
“I went in thinking it was the easiest money I would ever earn in my entire life,” he said.
In 2018, his wife Melinda died after being diagnosed with lung cancer and in August 2020, Whale revealed cancer had returned in his kidney, spine, brain and lungs.
The radio DJ’s past experience with cancer led him to form the James Whale Kidney Fund in 2006, which merged with Kidney Cancer UK in 2015.
Whale now hosts a weekly podcast with his second wife Nadine Talbot-Brown talking about their journey together with his stage four kidney cancer.
