Ralph McLean
Encyclopedia
Ralph McLean is a Northern Irish
TV presenter, radio DJ, arts commentator, radio producer and newspaper columnist.
for BBC Northern Ireland
for several years and worked on numerous shows and specials such as Would You Pass The 11+ and The Big Bumper Science Quiz and also presented several productions for BBC Four
. He has interviewed celebrities such as Dustin Hoffman
, Harrison Ford
, Tommy Lee Jones
, Mick Jagger
, Dolly Parton
and Angelina Jolie
.
to soul
and blues
.
He has presented his own two hour roots show on Friday nights for many years on BBC Radio Ulster
, interviewing many of the biggest names in country music such as Emmylou Harris
and Nanci Griffith
. He has also produced and presented many shows like Classic Irish Albums and produced numerous acclaimed documentary series such as The Sinéad O'Connor
Story, The Tammy Wynette
Story and The Loretta Lynn
Story for BBC Radio 2
.
In 2007 McLean won Specialist Music Broadcaster Of The Year in the PPI Awards.
every Friday.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
TV presenter, radio DJ, arts commentator, radio producer and newspaper columnist.
Television
McLean presents entertainment TV shows such as The Blackstaff Sessions, First Stop, 11th Hour and Belfast Festival At Queens. He has presented The World Pipe Band ChampionshipsWorld Pipe Band Championships
The World Pipe Band Championships is a pipe band competition currently held in Glasgow, Scotland every August. The event has been operating regularly since 1930, when the Scottish Pipe Band Association was formed...
for BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content...
for several years and worked on numerous shows and specials such as Would You Pass The 11+ and The Big Bumper Science Quiz and also presented several productions for BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
. He has interviewed celebrities such as Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
, Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
, Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
and Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
.
Radio
McLean presents The Ralph McLean Show from Tuesday to Thursday between 8 and 10pm, playing music from classic rockClassic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
to soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
.
He has presented his own two hour roots show on Friday nights for many years on BBC Radio Ulster
BBC Radio Ulster
BBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
, interviewing many of the biggest names in country music such as Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
and Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
. He has also produced and presented many shows like Classic Irish Albums and produced numerous acclaimed documentary series such as The Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
Story, The Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
Story and The Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
Story for BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
.
In 2007 McLean won Specialist Music Broadcaster Of The Year in the PPI Awards.
Newspaper work
McLean writes a popular weekly country music column for The Sunday Life and a cult movies page for The Irish NewsThe Irish News
The Irish News is a compact-sized daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is perceived as being broadly Irish nationalist in outlook...
every Friday.
Television
- The Blackstaff Sessions - BBC Two Northern Ireland (3 Series of the popular Live music TV show)
- Festival Nights - BBC Two Northern Ireland (4 full series of 3 times weekly panel review show for Belfast Festival)
- Four Series Of First Stop - BBC One Northern Ireland (Weekly Prime Time Entertainment show co -presented with Christine BleakleyChristine BleakleyChristine Louise Bleakley is a television presenter from Northern Ireland. She joined Daybreak on ITV as co-presenter with Adrian Chiles in September 2010...
) - Opening Night Of Belfast Festival At Queens 2004 - BBC Four
- Chieftains In Concert - BBC Four
- Three Series of 11th Hour - BBC ChoiceBBC ChoiceBBC Choice was a BBC TV station which launched on 23 September 1998 and closed on 9 February 2003. It was the first British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format, and was the first new channel from the BBC since BBC Two launched in 1964...
(3 times weekly entertainment show) - Burns And Beyond - BBC One Northern IrelandBBC One Northern IrelandBBC One Northern Ireland is the national variation for BBC Northern Ireland of the network BBC One service broadcast by the BBC. The service is broadcast in Northern Ireland from Broadcasting House in Belfast...
(Burns Night Ulster Scots Special) - Burns Night Concert - BBC One Northern Ireland 2006
- World Pipe Bands Championships/All Ireland Finals - BBC Two Northern Ireland
- Children in NeedChildren in NeedChildren in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
2001-Present - BBC OneBBC OneBBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
Radio
- The Ralph McLean Show 2006 - Present BBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
- McLeans Country 1999 - present BBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
- Classic Irish Albums 2006 BBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
- The Afternoon Show BBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
2006 - The Vinyl Countdown BBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio UlsterBBC Radio Ulster is one of two Northern Irish BBC radio stations, the other being BBC Radio Foyle located in the city of Derry. BBC Radio Ulster is located at Broadcasting House in the Ormeau Avenue area of Belfast city centre...
2003