Five things you didn’t know about Dotun Adebayo
From fringe discussions of south American football to lively chat about favourite memories, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Dotun Adebayo has been keeping the nation’s night owls company for 20 years.
Regular listeners between 01:00 and 05:00 GMT will be familiar with Dotun’s love of talking to people from all walks of life. His ability to craft thought-provoking discussions, as well as his taste for banter on the World Football Phone-in has become synonymous with the early hours.
In his Midnight Meets episode, Dotun spoke with Colin Murray about his love for late-night radio, hustling in the West End and how he claims to have never fallen asleep in front of the microphone.
Here are five things we learned about the Night Watchman.
1. He wanted the 5 Live graveyard shift
Waking up in the middle of the night to care for his infant baby introduced Dotun to the world of overnight radio.
“After the birth of my first child I spent many nights up,” he said.
“The nights when I was up waiting for the baby to cry, I was downstairs, and I’d listen to the radio. I suddenly started listening to overnights and I thought I was invited to a private club. Everything about it appealed to me.”
After knocking on the door of the BBC for years, an article Dotun wrote about becoming a new parent attracted the attention of the bosses at 5 Live.
5 Live’s station controller took him out to lunch and offered the obituary programme called Brief Lives.
“I said, it’s a brilliant programme I have got no problem with that, but the programme I really want to work on is the overnight show.’” He said.
“He probably choked on his glass of water! How many times do you get a presenter saying, ‘Can you give me the graveyard shift?’.”
But Dotun felt his home was overnights, he believes that understanding your own style and skills is key to any emerging talent.
“You have got to make the right choices as what works for you – what shows you in your best light," he said.
"The overnight show was the pace that I work at in terms of presenting, it was the cadence of my presenting style. It had a lot of attributes that worked for me, and I would be mad to think that’s not where my strength lies.”
2. He was originally an actor
Before Dotun made his mark on UK broadcasting, he was an actor.
One year, a family friend whisked young Dotun and his brother off to Shepperton Studios in Surrey, famous for Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Strangelove and many more.
“We went to what I now know as Shepperton Studios, in the evening, when nobody was there,” he said.
“They said, ‘Look, just run as fast as you can down this long corridor’, so I ran as if my life depended on it.
"My brother, who’s a lot cooler than me, he just strolled along because he could beat me there and back - so they chose me. I was also probably a little bit more cute than my brother. Although he does beg to differ.”
The outcome of these excursions was a horror film role alongside veteran actor Vincent Price, and his experience on set gave him an appetite for more acting.
“The Hammer House of Horror film was the part when I realised this movie stuff is great. You go around and you pretend to be someone, and they give you a lot of money," he said.
It wasn’t just the acting that Dotun remembers sparking his interest in something very different to his life at home.
“I remember the lunch boxes," he said. "I’m not putting it on, we were very poor. We were struggling. And then suddenly you’ve got this lunch box on a movie set and it’s got all these goodies in it.”
3. He once worked on radio in Sweden
While at university he was given the opportunity to study in Stockholm, something he describes as a “revelation.”
Already a published music journalist by the time he arrived, Dotun took the opportunity to become a broadcaster right at the moment UK punk music was becoming popular in Sweden.
“They were more punky than we were,” he said. “In fact, I saw the [Sex] Pistols play over there. I’m telling you it was one of the best gigs, they played in the complete dark and it caused repercussions.”
“I was there at the right time when all of this thing was blowing up and the Swedes were loving everything coming from the UK.”
4. He's no stranger to celebrities
Dotun has rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, most significantly as a regular visitor to one of Dr Dre’s L.A homes.
“When I lived in Los Angeles, which was in 1990, Dr Dre was my closest male friend. I went to his house several times," he said.
"He had just moved out to this secret location, it was out in the valley. He had virtually not slept there; it was like a show home. It was beautiful.”
His famous connections have brought some magic moments to his radio show, once calling Stevie Wonder live on air.
“His answering machine was, I just called to say I love you,” he said.
5. He claims to have never fallen asleep on air
Dotun Adebayo 'resting his eyes'
Dotun claims he's never fallen asleep on air.
Dotun will tell you he’s never once taken a nap while on air - but his production team beg to differ.
In the two decades that he’s been working intense night shifts, Dotun’s reputation for staying conscious and engaged at the mic speaks for itself, but one clip shows he hasn’t kept a perfect record for staying awake at work.
“It’s what we call in the business a pregnant pause,” he said.
