Our Patron - in gay surrey

Bill Buckley's message to Gay Surrey

"I'm honoured and thrilled to be a Patron of Gay Surrey, an organisation and website with the power to enrich the lives of local gay men and lesbians in so many ways.

It's easy to think that, with so many positive changes in the law and social attitudes in recent years, our fight for respect and equality is all but won, but there is still much to do, and our foes are forever around us! It is important that Surrey's Gay population has a forum to meet, socialise, share opinions and provide each other with support.

Congratulations on your first birthday, Gay Surrey: I hope to be associated with you for many more!"

I've been a broadcaster since 1982 when I got my first big break: presenting That's Life on BBC1 with Esther Rantzen.  Until then, I'd been a print journalist in the West Midlands.  I didn't mind swapping the industrial tribunals and magistrates' courts of Sandwell for the broken washing machines and phallic parsnips of Shepherds Bush one little bit.

I stayed with the show for three years, during which time, I was also in at the birth of breakfast television: I was a regional presenter, reporter and topic songwriter-and-performer for BBC Breakfast Time (the one with Frank and Selina on the sofa).  Writing a witty (allegedly!) three-minute song overnight then singing it to a sleepy nation at 6.45 and 8.45am was an experience.

I spent six years travelling the world as a reporter for the Beeb's Holiday Programme ("Yes, it IS hard work," "No, it's NOT like being on holiday," "Yes, I loved it, thanks.")

During this period, I finally started doing what I'd meant to do since I was a little boy: regular radio presenting. Bill currently presents radio phone-ins on London's LBC 97.3. Hear him on Friday mornings from midnight until 5 and on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 1 until 5.

Other telly over the years included all kinds of regional programmes for Meridian during my years on the south coast - everything from consumer affairs via politics to amateur filmmaking - plus appearances on everything from Blankety Blank (Les Dawson referred to me as 'ballast' - a career highlight) to Songs of Praise (on which I sang David Essex's hit, A Winter's Tale, with a huge orchestra and choir) and from Children in Need to Call My Bluff (a 'chattee' is someone having a conversation where the other party - the 'chatter' - is doing most of the talking/  Isn't it funny the things you remember?)

Last Spring, I won the London week of C4's cookery and party-giving competition, Come Dine with Me.  I discuss the following morning's newspapers on BBC News 24 late at night about three times a month, and occasionally do the same on BBC Breakfast on BBC1 on Saturday mornings.