Toby Anstis on the success of his Heart FM morning radio show - and love for Hammersmith

When Toby Anstis was growing up, he dreamed of a life in radio. “I always loved music and since the age of eight or nine loved the reaction that music gave people,” he tells me after wrapping up his weekday morning show one sunny day at Heart 106.2. “I used to set up my pretend radio station in my bedroom. I put a red bulb in a cardboard box and put ‘On Air’ on it, and then would switch it on and pretend to do a link. It’s just laughable!"

Given that his 9am to 1pm slot is the most popular commercial radio programme in the UK, Toby probably does have every reason to be laughing. He attracts an audience of more than 3.1 million people each week, which includes an increase of 150,000 new listeners in the last three months alone.

Munching on a sandwich, Toby tells the story of his leap from a cardboard box to a Leicester Square radio studio with his eyes wide in disbelief. He’d just finished university, moved to a flatshare in Hammersmith and was working in advertising when his dad asked him to deejay the office Christmas party. There he met the office manager’s boyfriend, who worked at the BBC on the Saturday morning kids’ show Going Live.

The following day Toby found himself at Television Centre to watch the programme bring filmed, then hung around for the aftershow drinks and nibbles. “I didn’t know anyone,” he remembers. “I was eating a cheese and bacon roll, drinking my Ribena and then this guy came up.” The man in question was head of children’s programming at the BBC, and a low-key conversation led to an audition a few days later.

“I’d never done anything like it, and it was really bad. I wasn’t very good ad all!” Toby exclaims. In any event, he made his way back from Wood Lane to the shared accommodation in W6. “I remember getting home to the flatmates and we all sat around having tea and biscuits, and the phone goes.” It was only an hour after the audition that he learned he’d landed a job with the BBC. “I’ll never forget that feeling of total confusion, total surprise after the nonsense I’d done in that pathetic audition.”

It really can’t have been too pathetic of course, because he quickly made a name for himself in front of the camera hosting BBC TV’s The Ozone and entertainment shows such as The Electric Circus on BBC1, as well as the National Lottery Live. He presented cricket films for Grandstand, plus live coverage of Party in the Park for ITV2, the Reading Festival and Children in Need on BBC1.

In 2005, he fronted a nightly show for Channel 5 called Trust me, I’m a Holiday Rep, which proved a ratings success. The following year he hit the jungle in ITV1’s hit show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! which had record ratings of over 12 million. Recently he was part of the presentation team for BBC1’s Dancing in the Streets with Bruce Forsyth and Zoe Ball and voiced the live commentary for the show. He was also one of the judges on Living TV’s Britain’s Next Top Model and later the same year he was a judge on MTV/VH1’s Wannabe pop show.

Always up for a challenge, last year Toby made his West End stage debut as Vince Fontaine/Teen Angel in the hit production of Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre. “I never dreamt in a million years that I’d get to do a West End musical – and I think most people thought the same thing!” he jokes.

He did his four-hour radio shows six days a week, with stage performances seven evenings a week, plus two afternoon matinees. It sounds perfectly exhausting, but Toby clearly likes to stay busy. When we speak, he’s just finished his first triathlon and is training for a London-to-Brighton night cycle for charity; he’s raising money for children’s hospices through Have a Heart, and is an Ambassador for The Prince’s Trust too. He’ll compete in his second triathlon in a matter of weeks, so once our interview is finished he’s off for a swim at Virgin Active in Hammersmith and a training run in Ravenscourt Park.

Toby has spent his whole adult life in that area and apparently has no plans to ever leave. “It’s so quaint,” he says, citing the Anglesey Arms, the Andover Arms and Stenton Family Butchers as favourite local spots. “I’m very lucky to live there because it’s 25 minutes door-to-door to work, and yet it’s in such a quiet spot.” With his days filled with pedalling, paddling and chatting – all at break-neck speed – he admits it’s a bonus to come home to silent streets and leafy gardens.

Does he get recognised in the neighbourhood? “I get tweets from people saying ‘Just seen Toby Anstis going to our newsagent,’ or ‘Just seen Toby Anstis going to his car; if you’re reading this it needs a clean!’” he laughs. “I’m addicted to Twitter so I see all that stuff come in.” Personally, I think if I were as crazily busy as Toby with a successful career and a stack of other interests, I might give polishing the motor a miss too. 

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