Bill Buckley is a radio and television presenter and former actor. For three years, he was a co-presenter of BBC Television’s consumer affairs programme That’s Life!.
He currently presents on BBC Radio Berkshire and has presented shows on BBC Radio Solent, BBC Southern Counties Radio, BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Oxford, Talk radio station LBC 97.3, BBC London 94.9, and numerous others.
Bill is a Food Editor and is also a member of Mensa.
Buckley’s broadcasting career began in 1982. While working as a newspaper reporter in his native West Midlands, he was chosen from thousands of hopefuls to present the consumer programme That’s Life! on BBC1 alongside Esther Rantzen. His mother had entered him for the job without his knowing. After three years, he left That’s Life! to become a reporter for the BBC’s Holiday programme, and spent the next six years travelling the world. Other TV appearances include Call My Bluff, Blankety Blank, All Star Secrets, Songs of Praise, Children in Need, and a variety of regional work in the south for Meridian Television on subjects as diverse as consumer affairs, politics and amateur film-making.
Beginning at the television channel’s launch in 1997, Buckley was for five-and-a-half years senior continuity announcer for Channel 5. He became well known for his commentary over the closing credits of the channel’s late-night/early-morning run of Prisoner: Cell Block H, on which he read out viewers’ letters and made comments about the episode just broadcast.
Buckley regularly reviews the national press on BBC Breakfast, the BBC News Channel and Sky News.
As a cookery judge, Bill has also appeared as a judge on three series of ITV1’s Britain’s Best Dish and UKTV Food’s The People’s Cookbook with Antony Worrall Thompson and Paul Rankin. He has been food editor of BBC Southern Counties magazine and was elected to the prestigious Guild of Food Writers. In 2008, Buckley replaced Loyd Grossman on Ten Minutes to Table, co-presenting with Xanthe Clay, for Telegraph TV. He has judged the Academy of Chocolate Awards, Great Taste Awards and World Cheese Awards. Buckley is a restaurant reviewer for View London.