Chris Evans

Biography: An English broadcaster, businessman and producer for radio and television.

Evans was born in Warrington, Cheshire, England, the youngest child of bookmaker and health authority wages clerk Martin Joseph Evans and Minnie Beardsall, who managed a corner shop. His siblings are David (born 1953) and sister Diane (born 1963). He started his schooling at St Margaret?s Church of England Infants and junior Schools, and later the Junior school in Orford, Warrington.

Evans passed the 11 plus exam and started at Boteler Grammar School, Warrington. After the death of his father (1979), the 13-year-old Evans took part-time work in a newsagent?tobacconist in Woolston, and ran an alternative tuck-shop at Padgate High School, which was a comprehensive school he attended for the final three years of his secondary education. Evans left secondary school at age 16 after moving into the sixth form, he then had a number of dead-end jobs in and around Warrington, including a private detective agency and notoriously as a "Tarzan-ogram."

Evans began his professional broadcasting career at Manchester Piccadilly Radio in 1983, where he had previously had unpaid school-boy work. Until 1984 Evans had three jobs: as an assistant to Timmy Mallett, and playing a character on his show called ?Nobby Nolevel? (?No ?O? Level?); acting as a disc jockey in the evenings at local pubs when he was not at Piccadilly Radio; and still working at the newsagents, opening up daily at 5 a.m. to sort out the newspaper deliveries.

Evans switched to a full-time position at the station in 1984. After going full-time, Evans role included being driven around the Manchester area in the radio car to turn up at listeners? houses. In addition he was producer to presenter James H. Reeve. Following this he presented a weekday graveyard slot with competitions and segments where listeners had opportunities to sell their belongings on air.

After working as a producer on Richard Branson?s service The Superstation, where he produced material for Jonathan Ross, Evans went on to work at BBC London radio station GLR, first as a producer on Emma Freud?s mid-morning show, then Weekend Breakfast with Danny Baker. Evans became a GLR presenter in early 1990, taking over a Saturday afternoon show. Three months later, he started presenting The Greenhouse, a Monday to Thursday evening show; he remained on this slot until the end of 1990.

Evans married Carol McGiffin in 1991; but their 1994 split was not amicable and McGiffin has been scathing about Evans in newspaper articles in the years since; they divorced in 1998. During his time at BBC Radio 1 and Virgin, Evans had well publicised relationships with Kim Wilde, model Rachel Tatton-Brown, assistant producer Suzi Aplin, Anthea Turner, Geri Halliwell, and Melanie Sykes. After meeting teenage pop star Billie Piper and after she proposed on his 35th birthday, the couple married in a £200 ceremony at The Little Church of the West in Las Vegas on 6 May 2001; attended by six guests including best man Danny Baker. In September 2004, news stories circulated regarding a trial separation - Evans at the time had a stall at Camden Market, where he was found selling furniture and paintings from his London and Los Angeles homes, commenting: "I just want to get rid of it all, it?s just a headache." In Spring 2005, it was confirmed that Evans and Piper would divorce, and, with Piper publicly stating that she would take no money from Evans, it is believed to have been an amicable split, they finally divorced in May 2007.

A fanatical golfer who plays with a handicap of 15, Evans met professional golfer, part-time model and columnist for Golf Punk magazine Natasha Shishmanian when they became golf partners in the All*Star Cup celebrity tournament in Newport. He married Shishmanian in a London Register office on Saturday 11 August 2007, and held a reception in Faro, Portugal the following weekend, attended by ex-wife Piper. On 17 July 2008, the DJ announced that the couple were expecting their first baby together. Their son, Noah Nicholas Martin was born in February 2009.

Evans took over the Radio 2 breakfast show on 11 January 2010.

In 2010, it was announced that Evans would be replacing Adrian Chiles as the Friday co-host of The One Show on BBC1. Chiles and then co-host Christine Bleakley left the show to join ITV. Evans now hosts The One Show on Fridays with co-host Alex Jones, and occasionally covers weekdays. Ratings for the Friday editions hosted by Evans have shown a significant slump in viewing figures since early 2011, shedding 2 million viewers compared with the Monday-Thursday format