Christopher Francis Stark is a British radio personality best known for his
work as a contributor on the Scott Mills show on BBC Radio 1.
Radio career Stark started working at Radio Northwick
Park, a hospital radio station, at the age of 16 and gained experience working
at stations including Galaxy, Real Radio, Virgin Radio and BBC 6 Music. At
18, Stark started at the University of Southampton where he studied politics
and was given his own show on the student radio station Surge.
He officially joined the Scott Mills show team on 2 April 2012, but
occasionally appeared on the show as 'Scott's friend Chris' for a period of
time prior to this. Stark participates in most of the show's current features
including Real or No Real, Innuendo Bingo, 24 Years at the Tap End, Loving
the Trolls, and "Mike Oxbig vs Moe Lester".
24 Years at the Tap End Chris Stark is known for the feature 24
Years at the Tap End, in which he reads excerpts from his "autobography". He was
originally inspired to write his own autobiography after reading the
autobiography of Brendan Sheerin from Coach Trip. The title refers to his
on-air realisation, at age 24, that he had been sitting at the wrong end of the
bath his whole life. The first episode aired on 11 November 2011. In this
episode, Stark revealed that his parents had originally planned to name him
"Porrick". Throughout the series, Stark recounts memorable events from his
"years at the tap end" which often include mistakes made and life lessons
learned through adventures with his friends. The second series of the show
concluded in 2013, with no plans for a third. However, a one-off special aired
in January 2014 as part of a comedy night on Radio One. This late night
edition, Tap End: Unplugged, aired live In front of a studio audience and
featured a live rendition of the theme tune. The late airing allowed for Chris
to reveal the full story of a holiday to Prague he had discussed in a previous
episode, telling parts which were considered "too rude for daytime" and
using strong language. The Mila Kunis interview
In March 2013, Chris Stark was sent with ten minutes' notice to a media junket
for the film Oz the Great and Powerful to interview American actress Mila Kunis
for the Scott Mills show. The interview caught the attention of the world's
media due to its unorthodox nature, as Stark barely mentioned the film and
mostly discussed his local pub, football club, Nando's and drinking games with
his friends. The video was posted to YouTube by BBC Radio 1 and subsequently
went viral. Within days, it had been viewed by ten million people and Stark
himself was interviewed by American entertainment and news shows such as
Access Hollywood and CNN's Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien.
Chris later went on to interview Robert Downey Jr and Jennifer Aniston in
similar fashion. The Celeb Hunter: 2 Chairs, 1 Chat
In November 2013, Channel 4 announced they had commissioned an hour long,
one-off documentary special which would feature Chris attempting to interview
his ultimate bucket list of celebrities, including Derek Acorah, Rachel Stevens,
Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell, Ricky Hatton and Verne Troyer. This aired on
Monday 10 February and attracted 662k viewers on overnights.
ICYMI Since November 2014, Stark has hosted a
BBC iPlayer only feature called ICYMI where he talks through highlights from
the last week on Radio 1 and Radio 1 Xtra.
Virtually Famous Since July 2014, Chris has been a team
captain on the E4 show, Virtually Famous, which he will return to for a
further two series in 2015. References
External links March 2012 Interview with Chris Stark by
Soton Tab Chris Stark featured in an April 2012
Newsbeat report on heart screenings 2014 interview with Chris Stark by Soton
Tab