A Star is Born

Shane Patrick Roche was born to Irish parents and was brought up in a little fishing village called Harlesden in North London on 11th March 1964, which makes him a Pisces (imaginative, artistic, creative).

School wasn't his favourite past-time, he couldn't see the point in learning about arable farming in Norfolk! But he loved the drama lessons. He did amateur dramatics in his spare time and eventually toured with a rep company. But, as a teenager, he also enjoyed trips "up West" to discos, especially one called the Sundown. Groups like Wham and Duran Duran were then enjoying the spotlight.

At 16 he travelled to Plymouth on the promise of a job DJ-ing, but it fell through, so he ended up sleeping rough, mostly on a park bench, for a full year before the police escorted him out of town and left him on the side of the M5. When he eventually knocked on the door of his home, his mother didn't recognise him, he had lost so much weight.

Pontins advertised for auditions for Bluecoats that summer. Shane wasn't old enough, but could pass for eighteen, so lied about his age and applied. He got the job! He recalls how he would get a kick out of being a 16-year-old bouncer and having the power to turn away lads older than himself when they tried to get into the bar at the holiday camp! He also called the bingo and organised Donkey Derbys, as well as doing live entertainment in the evenings.One summer day in the early eighties, the Canberra was due home with troops from the Falklands conflict. Shane was working at the Pontin's camp on the Isle of Wight and he heard on the radio that the ship would pass by the island. He said he would be on the beach at 6 am if anyone wanted to join him to wave to the returning troops. Literally hundreds of campers turned out, with flags, bunting, booze, the lot! There was a low mist and they could hear the sound of a ship's horn. Out of the mist appeared this huge ship. And there, sailing towards them was.......the car ferry from Cowes!! Shane was severely reprimanded for pulling a
sick stunt and was eventually asked to leave the island.

Shane made a documentary in 1997 for ITV to celebrate 60 years of holiday camp entertainment. It was called "Wakey, Wakey, Rise and Shane." It includes a video clip of Shane's first public appearance, looking remarkably like Simon Le Bon!

The camps had given him a good training ground for doing stand-up comedy. He took to the road hosting "Ladies Night Out", a fore-runner of the Chippendales-type show. Then, as a stand-up comic, he went on to do gigs with the likes of Lenny Henry. On the "circuit" Shane could be doing the Comedy Store in London one night, and then be zooming down to a Butlin's somewhere to do another gig. Shane has also done pantomime, most notably, Peter Pan. He also appeared regularly with his great friends, Cannon and Ball.

It was in fact Bobby Ball who christened Shane "The Legend". While all three were doing a summer season in Bournemouth in 1986 they would all bundle together in the car and drive to the gigs. Bobby would tell Shane, "You are a legend you are !" The name of course has stayed with Shane throughout his career.

In February 1983 in Torremolinos , Shane was spotted by Barry Dye, a show business producer and agent who was taking a break from the English winter whilst keeping in touch with a few of the acts he was representing out in Spain.

Barry recalls :

"On the way to the airport aboard the coach, Shane decided to try his hand as a tour guide and gave some history about the surrounding scenery. Unfortunately he was overzealous in mentioning that a plane had once crashed into the mountain that could be seen in the distance. This did little to help the passengers enjoy their subsequent flight home!"

After Shane had completed his contract with Pontins, Barry became his manager, an association which lasted for some 12 years. Shane was always welcomed as one of the family amongst the Dye household in Suffolk. Barry's daughter Hayley once appeared on Run the Risk with Shane, and she now persues a showbiz career also.

Shane's first television appearance I am reliably informed was definitely Summertime Special (However, in his autobiography, Shane recalls how his legs were shown swinging through a fence on the opening shots of Grange Hill!). Barry had suggested Shane for the regular summer variety show to Bill Hetterley, the casting director of Southern Television. Bill went to see Shane appearing in a summer show at St. Helier in Jersey at Barry's suggestion. Shane and the rest of the cast were enjoying a preshow drink and some larking about, blissfully unaware that Bill was in the bar watching. He was immediately impressed by Shane's personality and charisma and decided to sign him for Summertime Special there and then, even before he had seen what Shane could do on stage. Once he had seen the show that followed, it just confirmed the belief Bill had in Shane's gift and ability as a performer, and Shane went on to appear regularly on Summertime Special for the 3 years of its run.

Shane was incredibly nervous for the show, his first time on national television. Wearing a pink bolero jacket and his hair long and blond, he did jokes and sung. As the applause died down he left the stage and hugged Barry's wife Cindy, so relieved that his first national television appearance was completed successfully.

The series was produced by David Bell and choreographed by Nigel Lythgoe, perhaps better known nowadays to you all as "Nasty Nigel" of the Popstars series. Nigel was a great help to Shane in is early career back then, and is in fact a very nice person, not nasty at all !

In 1990 Shane did a sketch series on BBC 1, called "Up to Something" which had Shane playing a variety of characters. And also that year, would you believe that he was on television five nights a week?! Those of you lucky enough to have had satellite TV in those days may well remember it. He hosted a chat show alongside Derek Jameson on SKY ONE every week-night. Stars like Jodie Foster and Phil Collins were interviewed, and Shane also did outside broadcasts at such occasions as the BAFTAS and celebrity suppers at No.10 Downing Street. More sketch shows followed with "You Gotta Be Joking", and then he hosted the BBC's answer to video shows,called "Caught in the Act". This show had excellent ratings for a Friday night, but for some reason was dropped after one series. He says now that it was the last time he compromised over a show. In 1992, Shane did Saturday mornings on Going Live for Children's BBC . His section of the show was "Run the Risk", an energetic quiz for two teams of kids. But Shane was 'The Legend' and never seemed to end up getting gunged!

Shane has appeared on a Royal Variety show, in which he performed brilliantly doing the old Elvis number, "Jailhouse Rock". In 2004, he had the honour of presenting the show.

In between all this television work Shane was appearing as Kenickie in Grease, the revival of the stage musical which opened at the Dominion Theatre in 1993. He took time out to film a twelve week series of "Win, Lose or Draw" which he had inherited from Danny Baker. This show is probably the most fondly remembered by fans nowadays. Probably because it was Shane 'doing his own thing'. He did impressions, he sung, he told jokes about Dale Winton, who always seemed to be doing a boot sale outside the window! Somewhere in there Shane also managed to host the actual quiz! There was even a Grease special one week, with Debbie Gibson and Richard Calkin in the teams.

One of the contestants on WLD presented Shane with a Supermarket Sweep sweatshirt for his birthday!

In July 1994 Shane took over the lead role as Danny Zuko in Grease. In 1995 he signed with Granada and made several television series with them, including Lucky Numbers (three series) and a 'pilot' called "The Shane Richie Experience". Granada liked what they saw and commissioned a series. Never has so much @!!!!.# been written about a mere TV show! The press really went to town. And all because a couple who won a quiz would get married 'live' on air. As Shane was to point out later, royalty get married on television all the time, so why not Mr and Mrs Ordinary? After the fuss died down, the show was re-vamped and called "Love Me Do". The only differences were that Shane didn't sing and dance, (which goes to show those in high places don't always get it right...) and the couples got married in their dream destination instead of the Coronation Street set.

Shane prefers to be known as an entertainer, not a game-show host, a phrase he 'loathes and detests'.