Steve Wright death – latest: BBC DJ found dead ‘by paramedics at home’ as brother breaks silence

Kevin E G Perry has paid tribute to Wright, calling him “a friend you only had to switch on your radio to summon”.

Perry writes: “In September 2022, when Steve Wright signed off from his final afternoon show on Radio 2, he did it with good humour and characteristic charm. ‘Last show,’ he said as it opened. ‘Bit of pressure. Got to make it a good one, everybody.’

“It was hard to imagine that Wright, who has died at the age of 69, was really feeling the pressure. After all, he had spent 40 years on daytime national radio, redefining the medium on BBC Radio One before moving to Radio 2 for another 23 years as the nation’s constant and beloved companion, a wild, joyful friend you only had to switch on your radio to summon.”

Read The Independent’s full tribute to the late radio icon here:

“What he did on the radio was extraordinary,” LBC radio host James O’Brien said.

“He was for many people the essence of creative radio”.

Steve Wright fans have been reflecting on his legacy, with one fan resharing Wright’s top tips for radio presenting.

They include: “Never mention the equipment” and “find different ways to say the same thing”.

Writer and TV presenter Adrian Chiles has written a tribute to Wright, in which he recalls a period in his life when Wright’s voice on the Afternoon show on BBC Radio 2 would lift his spirits.

“If ever I needed a cheering companion at my side, this was the time. And Steve, along with his ‘posse’, was my man. He was friendly and funny,” Chiles wrote in The Guardian.

He recalled writing a fan letter to Wright to thank him but said he had no idea whether the DJ ever received it.

“I didn’t put my address on it, mainly because I was a bit embarrassed about what I had written. I thanked him for his company from the bottom of my heart, and for putting a smile on my face every day in a trying period of my life.”

Five years later, Chiles said he met Wright at an industry event.

“I was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot without anyone to talk to, when I got a tap on the shoulder. Before I knew it, I was listening to the actual Steve Wright telling me how much he enjoyed the TV show, Working Lunch.”

“Once I’d got over my shock and joy, we talked for a while. I saw him every now and then over the years, on and off air. He was always the same: friendly and funny, charmed and charming, interested and interesting.”

Chiles concluded that Wright “spread a great deal of happiness in his time”.

On Thursday, the BBC announced that Wright’s Top of the Pops debut from 1980 would be shown on BBC Four in memory of the presenter.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “We’ve been remembering Steve on air all week together with our presenters and listeners, and we’ll continue to celebrate his decades with the BBC this weekend.

“On BBC Four, audiences can catch his first ever Top of the Pops from 1980, on BBC Sounds there’s a special collection and this weekend’s Pick Of The Pops and Sunday Love Songs will be dedicated to Steve, presented by Gary Davies and Liza Tarbuck.”

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Elsewhere in his interview with the Daily Mail, Laurence Wright touched on his brother’s 2022 exit from Steve Wright in the Afternoon.

Radio 1’s Scott Mills took over the slot after station head Helen Thomas told Wright she “wanted to do something different” with the afternoon show.

“Steve was very professional about it,” Laurence said of the transition.

“He felt that he’d been at the BBC for 40 years or whatever it was, and you’ve got to move on at some point, and he felt that he was kind of happy to move on, and give someone else a chance.

“That was his view, although he also at the same time thought that it was a little of an unusual decision.

“The BBC, he said, were moving on to younger, more diverse audience, however, it does seem a little mad that the BBC, who is supposed to be an organisation for general entertainment for people, would take off a show that was clearly entertaining people, because of the listenership.”

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Wright’s brother, Laurence, has given an interview to the Daily Mail in which he blames his brother’s death on his diet and overall “lifestyle choices”.

“He was aware that he could have looked after himself better, in his lifestyle choices. Obviously we all wish he had,” Laurence, a director of a company in the health industry, said.

“It’s like anyone who doesn’t look after themselves over an extended period. The normal stuff – diet, nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress – he was a very stoic kind of guy as well so if he had something wrong with him and he had to go to have some treatment or go to the doctors, he wouldn’t talk about it.”

Wright was found dead by paramedics at his central London flat on Monday morning, according to reports – but police say his death is not being treated as suspicious.

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Wright’s death has left his BBC colleagues “broken”, radio presenter Jo Wiley said, as she paid tribute to “the master of his craft”.