Age: 66.
Appearance: Retired driving instructor.
AKA: David Patrick Griffin; DLT; the Hairy Cornflake.
The Hairy Cornflake? As a 1970s DJ, the bearded Travis adopted the nickname the Hairy Monster, which he modified accordingly when he moved to Radio 1's breakfast show.
So he's a DJ then? He's so much more: DJ, TV presenter, pillar of the Burmese democracy movement, Pipe Smoker of the Year 1982.
That's funny – he doesn't look like a pipe smoker. You've picked the wrong odd one out. Look where I'm pointing.
Sorry. That's funny – he doesn't look like a pillar of the Burmese democracy movement. Well, he isn't, really, but he did help keep democracy campaigner and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi connected to the outside world during her years under house arrest.
How? Did he smuggle her writings out of Burma under the noses of the military junta? No, he presented A Jolly Good Show on the BBC World Service, which apparently represented a lifeline for Aung San Suu Kyi. "I would listen to that quite happily because the listeners would write in and I had a chance to hear other people's words," she told the Radio Times. "It made my world much more complete."
What's DLT's take? "I'm not surprised that Aung San Suu Kyi listened to my show but I'm touched she remembers it," he said. "We played requests, mostly pop music, on A Jolly Good Show, and I prided myself on always pronouncing names correctly."
Wow. What other imprisoned freedom fighters maintain their sanity with regular doses of the Hairy Cornflake?
None. A Jolly Good Show went off air in 2001.
Thanks to pressure from dictators and despots around the globe, no doubt. Actually, the World Service just decided to gear its output more toward news.
Do say: "Poor show, World Service. Quack quack oops!"
Don't say: "This one goes out to Ann St Sushi in Brum – it's Eric Carmen with All By Myself . . ."
